First Kiss
by rizandace
Summary: A tale of Jess and Rory, growing up, being best friends, and falling in love. Try it? Please? Rated T just in case.
1. Prologue: First Kiss

Author's Note: Hey there readers

Author's Note: Hey there readers! This is my first attempt at a long Jess/Rory pairing story. I'm kind of weird in that I'm a die-hard Rogan fan one minute, and I love Literati the next. My dream scenario is when Rory is dating one of them and friends with the other, but that's not really likely. Now. I know that there are a lot of stories in which Jess and Rory grow up together, but I thought I'd try it with my own little twist. Hope you all enjoy. Oh! Right, some things you might want to know: Jess doesn't know his father, just like in the show. His mom is still flighty and flirty Liz, but she ends up shipping off her son to her big brother Luke when Jess is only 6 years old, not 17. Jess keeps to himself mostly, and grows up with only two people in the world he can depend on: Rory and Luke. Lorelai approves of Jess in this story, mostly because Rory and Jess have grown up together. Allllrighty then, I'll just let you read now.

* * *

Prologue:

Thirteen year old Rory Gilmore walked through the door of the diner for an after-school snack. Anyone who didn't know her wouldn't see anything wrong. In fact, most people who _did_ know her were oblivious to the fact that something was troubling the young girl. But Jess saw. He always knew. From his spot at the counter, he watched as his best friend walked in the door, and immediately suspected that something wasn't quite right.

"Wassa matter?" he said through a mouth full of fries.

Rory's head snapped up, and electric blue met coffee brown.

"Nothing. I'm fine," she said, facing away from Jess. But in the one second that their eyes had connected, she had given it away.

"Bridge," Jess said simply, scribbling a note on a napkin to Luke telling him where they were, taking her arm, and dragging her out of the diner.

"Jess, really. I'm ok, you don't have to…" Rory struggled uselessly against Jess's vice-like grip around her wrist. Before she knew it, they were at their spot. It wasn't like they had ever officially voiced it, but both of them found the bridge as the place where they could really connect; really be themselves. Rory sat down and sighed.

"Talk," Jess said, staring intently at her. His monosyllabic ways could really get on someone's nerves fast, but Rory knew that he cared about her more than he dared show. He was there to listen to her problems, no matter how silly or girly they may be.

"It's nothing, really, you'll think it's stupid," she mumbled, looking away from him, embarrassed.

Jess tilted her head up with his finger and raised his eyebrows at her in a silent challenge. Without saying a word, he had clearly said: _Wanna bet?_

"Fine. It's… just… well at lunch today I overheard some girls talking, and they said something that upset me," Rory started.

Jess's eyes narrowed. "Who do I need to beat up?" he said, his intensely protective nature when it came to Rory flaring up.

She let out a small laugh. "They didn't say anything to me; it's just something I overheard."

"What?" Jess said finally, after a few minutes of silence.

"They were talking about how guys and girls could never really be friends. Well, they said that they could be friends, they just couldn't be good friends, because no matter what, a boy is never going to tell a girl when they have their first kiss, or when they like someone, and a girl is never going to tell a boy any of that either. And they said that you were _supposed_ to tell your best friends this kind of thing. And… I don't know it's silly…" she trailed off when she saw Jess grinning at her.

"And what? You think that we can't be best friend because I'm not going to tell you when I have my first kiss?" Jess said.

"Stop looking at me like its ridiculous," Rory said, glaring.

"Well, it _is_ ridiculous. You know you're my best friend, Rory," he said, placing his hands on either side of her face. When he saw that he still looked unconvinced, sudden inspiration struck. "I'll tell you what. I _promise_ to tell you when I have my first kiss, if you promise me the same thing."

"Really?" Rory said, a smile gracing her beautiful features.

"Yeah, really. Actually, I think I'm going to be having mine some time today," he said, quite casually.

Rory tried not to look too disappointed as she said, "Oh, wow… that's…"

Jess leaned down quite suddenly and pressed his lips to hers. His lips moved against hers nervously and sweetly, in the act of a gentle first kiss.

When he pulled away, her eyes were closed, but she quickly opened them and stared at him in shock, her bright electrifying gaze piercing right through him.

"You- just- kissed me," she managed after a few seconds of silence.

"Yeah, I remember, I was there," he said, smirking.

"You aren't supposed to- you just can't go around kissing people!" she said, trying to sound angry, but grinning like mad.

Jess stared at her, a crooked grin on his face. "Huh," was his eloquent response. "I think I just did."

* * *

Love it? Hate it? Should I continue? I'd like to have quite a few reviews encouraging me to continue before I'll post anything again. This piece works as a one-shot, so I'm in no hurry to update. Please please please review and tell me what you think!!


	2. Chapter 1: Birthdays and Shane

Author's Note: Enthusiastic responses! Thanks!! Ok, here's Chapter 1. I would like to have at least... um... let's say 15 reviews before I will post chapter 2. I hate having to threaten to withhold chapters, but I'm not the most confidant writer, and I need feedback to know that people actually care. Feel free to make suggestions. I won't necessarily listen to you, but hey, I might. And if you find any typos, please point them out? Thanks. One more thing: Guess what? Rory and Jess didn't get together after their adorable kiss! Confused? Well, me too. Because originally they were going to. And then... the characters told me to do something else. Don't be mad... trust me, they will be together cuz they are PERFECT!! Alright, read on...

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Chapter 1:

Rory's feet hit the edge of the bridge as she sat on it, thinking about... well, life in general. Most of her thoughts were centered around her best friend in the entire world, Jess Mariano, and this bridge, the sight of so many of their good times together. She remembered when she was 10 years old and he had held her for hours, as she cried over her father. Christopher had once again failed to show up for a birthday party, and Jess, being the loyal friend that he was, comforted her. Or when she was 12, and had done poorly on a test at school. She had been hysterical, claiming that Harvard would never accept someone who got a C- on a test. While Jess would never understand her obsession with school, he understood what a big deal it was, and had brought her to the bridge with a carton of ice cream and stayed with her for hours until she felt better. Or three years ago when they were 13 and had shared their first kiss. Rory smiled at the thought. Once they had left the bridge that day, it was an unspoken agreement that the kiss was a private thing, something that shouldn't be brought up again. Rory hadn't even told her mom. Jess and Rory had remained as close as ever, but had never went down the path of a relationship.

She didn't know why. The purpose of her musings on a rainy Friday night was all centered around something else. She was 16 now. She was 16 and had never had a boyfriend. Jess had never dated anyone either, for that matter. Her birthday had been just last night, and Jess had distracted her all day with lunch and hours walking around the bookstore while Lorelai set up her party. They spent every second that they could with each other. Rory went to Chilton, and Jess remained at Star's Hollow High, but it hadn't affected their friendship at all. Why didn't she date? She could have a boyfriend right now, she knew. Tristan Dugrey had expressed obvious interest in the past, and she found herself attracted to him. She could say yes next time he asked her out. But she didn't.

Lorelai had a theory that people were afraid to approach Rory with Jess always hanging around, and vis versa. Any outsider would assume the two were dating with the way he always had his arm around her, was always hugging her and kissing her forehead. The 16 year old high school students looked very much in love. Lorelai had learned very early that one of the few off-limits for teasing topics was Jess. She couldn't tease Rory about liking him, or couldn't claim that Jess was in love with her. Rory would undoubtedly take it too seriously, and Lorelai had given it up. Instead, she observed from afar the two completely oblivous teenagers, waiting for the day when they would see what was right in front of them.

Rory had a suddenly frightening thought. What if all these thoughts were one-sided? What if Jess was going to find a girl, fall in love, and forget all about her? A single tear slipped down her cheek.

"Rory? What happened?" Jess said, panic and worry lacing every word as he sat down and quickly pulled her into his arms.

She tried to hide her tears, but she knew it was too late. She just shook her head and buried her head in the crook of his neck, throwing her arms around his neck. Jess's hand came up and gently brushed through her hair. He propped his chin against the top her her head and pulled her as close as he could. He was very confused, seeing as everything had appeared just fine with Rory just a few short hours ago when they said goodbye to each other at the diner. But after fruitless hours lying wide awake staring at his ceiling, he decided that sleep wasn't coming to him, and had escaped to the solace of the bridge, only to find that he wasn't alone. His sleepless nights lately had centered around the far from platonic feelings he was having for his best friend. But she was off-limits, because he wouldn't risk what they already had. Besides, she was sure to start dating someone else soon. It was inevitable.

Some how they had lowed themselves so they were lying down on the bridge, and the two had fallen into a peaceful sleep, cuddled up under the blanket of the trees and of the night.

* * *

"Hey. Lunch?" Jess said into the phone when Rory picked up.

"Weston's?"

"Sure. See you in ten?"

"Yeah," Rory hung up the phone and grabbed her jacket, heading out the door with a yell over her shoulder: "Lunch with Jess, I'll call,"

"Bye, hun," came Lorelai's distracted voice as she went over some paperwork with the Inn.

When she arrived at Weston's, she saw Jess leaning against the counter, his arms folded in front of him and his eyebrows raised. "Are you going to tell me what last night was about?" he said, somewhat accusingly.

"Shouldn't we sit down?" Rory asked, looking for an available table. Jess smoothly pulled out a chair for Rory and plopped down in the one across from her.

"Hey, you are not getting out of having this discussion with me, Ror. Talk," he said when she tried to avoid the topic by intensely studying the Weston's menu, which she had long ago memorized.

She sighed heavily. "It's hard to tell you what happened because I'm not really sure myself. I just have... this feeling. It's like something is about to change, and I can't tell if it's good or bad, but I'm perfectly happy the way things are. I have my mom and my grandparents, Chilton and you, and I don't need anything else. It's stupid. I know. I shouldn't base my happiness on a _feeling."_

He stared at her for a minute, unsure if he should voice his own view on the topic. Finally, he spoke, his voice unusually quiet and meek. "I feel it too."

"It's scaring me, Jess," Rory admitted.

Jess nodded in response. "Hey, after we eat, let's check out Sophie's Music Shop, I was talking to Lane at school and she said they had some new stuff in."

Rory smiled at his weak attempt to change the subject. "Sure, let's go."

* * *

School the next Monday was a stressful one for Jess, as he was harrassed by his so-called friends once again about "The Rory Issue," as they liked to call it. Apparently they were all a bit more dense than Lorelai, and had not grasped that Jess didn't like being teased about this particular topic.

"Hey, man, if you're not going to ask _her_ out, why not ask someone else?" Zach asked, nudging Jess playfully as they made their way to lunch. Jess sighed. He didn't make friends easily, and he knew he should be grateful to have Zach and Brian to talk to at school, when Rory wasn't around, but that didn't stop him from wanting to slap them.

"I just don't want to, Zach. Drop it, please?" he said, in an attempt he already knew would fail.

"Hey, Jess, what about her?" Brian asked in his nasal voice. "She's totally in to you."

Jess followed Brian's gaze to a ditzy bubbly blonde who was leaning against her locker and chewing gum in a way that made Jess want to gag.

"Um. No, thank you," he said, forcing his way ahead of his two friends and stepping into the lunch room.

"Oh, come on. _Everyone_ is in to Shane. If I wasn't already dating my own beautiful girlfriend," Zach paused to smile and wave at Lane across the room, walking toward her, "I would totally ask her out," he finished, turning his attention back to Jess, who was rolling his eyes.

"I'm not looking for a girlfriend right now, thanks for the suggestion," he said harshly, leaving his two friends behind as he walked to the lunch line. The truth was, Jess wished he was interested in someone like Shane. He wished he could ask her out. But every time he thought about it, Rory's face popped into his head. And suddenly, startlingly, this thought made Jess mad. Why should Rory stop him from having a girlfriend? What right did she have to always get into his head at the worst possible moment? He paused, and then did an about-face and marched straight back out the cafeteria door.

"Hey, Shane?" he asked, stepping up to her.

* * *

"Hey, Mary." A voice startled Rory out of her book, which she was reading during lunch.

"Tristan," she said as a way of greeting. Tristan sat down across from her and played somewhat nervously with his hands.

"Mare... why don't you like me?" he asked. Rory looked up, startled, giving him her full attention by snapping her book shut. He wasn't pouting, or looking upset, he was genuinely curious for the answer.

"I don't- not- like you, Tristan," she said, sighing.

"Well it seems like you do," he said, daring her to disagree.

To his surprise, she didn't even try. "I know. And... I'm sorry about that. It's just..." but she couldn't find the words to complete the sentence.

"Hey. Let me take you out. Please. One date, that's it."

"I-" she should say yes. Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes. "No. I'm sorry, Tristan, I really can't."

* * *

"Hey," Jess said attempting a weak smile as Rory walked in the door to the diner.

She was instantly alerted. "What's up?" she asked, her eyebrows wrinkled with concern.

"Ah, nothing... just a long day at school," he said, and then mentally slapped himself. _A long day at school?! Just tell her about Shane. Do it! Come on!_

"Rrrright..." Rory said, not buying his lies. "Jess, come on, what's going on?"

"I... I got into an argument with Zach today," he said. Well, it technically wasn't a lie. He _had_ had an argument with Zach. Guilt wove through him tightly and clamped around his stomach, making it plunge uncomfortably as Rory rolled her eyes.

"You guys will make up. Now relax," she said.

How could he lie to his best friend? To the person who meant more to him than anyone else? Rory must have detected that there was more to Jess's unhappiness than he was willing to show. Instead of pushing the subject, as she desperately wanted to, she simply stepped behind the counter at Luke's Diner and placed a hand on the side of his face, willing him to look into her eyes. "Jess?" she said softly. "You know I love you, right?"

His eyes closed as the guilt strangled him. _Tell her the truth, Jess! _His conscious was screaming at him. "I know. I love you too." _Dammit. Tell her!  
_

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Author's Note: Well? I don't really like this chapter very much, but I had to set up a time-frame and everything... The last chapter was merely a prologue of a cute Rory/Jess moment that will be brought up again very soon in a chapter coming up. I know they're not together yet, but I tried to portray how much they really cared for one another. Both really want to be with the other, but both assume that the other is in it only for the friendship. And stay tuned to learn more... Is Jess going to stay with Shane? And will he tell Rory? (Wow... sounds like a soap opera. haha.) Ok... 15 reviews for Chapter 2, folks! Thanks for reading!


	3. Chapter 2: Moving!

Author's Note: Well, here it is! I was going to wait stubbornly for 15 reviews but you guys were taking too long :( Please give me 10 reviews and I'll give you chapter 3! Thanks to everyone that's reviewed so far!

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Chapter 2:

"GRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHH!" Rory screamed into her pillow to muffle the noise, but Lorelai heard it anyway.

"Huh?" Lorelai walked into her daughter's room and sat down on the edge of the bed. "Rory, what's wrong?"

"Jess. Jess is wrong," she said, trying to hide the fact that she was crying from her mother.

"Jess?!" Lorelai was shocked. Never once had her daughter cried because of Jess. He had been nothing but the sweetest and most devoted friend in the world. She had never heard tell of the two fighting, or even arguing over anything.

"Yes, Jess," Rory said, and when Lorelai chuckled at the rhyme, Rory's head shot up and she glared so seriously that Lorelai's expression changed to one of concern as she asked, "What happened?"

"That's just it, I don't know! On the surface, everything is fine, but for about a week, he hasn't said anything to me of substance. I've invited him out for lunch or looking around the book store three times this week and every time he turned me down, except for today, when he said yes this morning and called me just now to cancel."

"Aw hun," she said, pulling Rory close as she started sobbing about half-way through her rant.

Rory was beyond confused. Never once had Jess ditched her for anything. It was always Rory first, Zach and Brian second, homework last, if ever. And now… it was: "Sorry, I have homework," or "Sorry, I promised Zach and Brian I would hang with them." And every time he said no, she saw a look of pain etched on his face. It was like saying these things was causing him so much guilt and torture, but yet he couldn't stop.

"Mom, I'm going for a walk, I'll meet you for dinner at 6," she said. She needed to clear her head, maybe head to the bridge.

"Luke's?" Lorelai asked.

Rory hesitated- she would inevitably run into Jess there- but then smiled weakly and said "Sure."

* * *

It hadn't happened on purpose. He was given so many opportunities to tell her what was going on in the past week, and every time, he backed down at the last second. Shane seemed to monopolize all of his time, as he continued to try to convince himself that he actually enjoyed spending time with her half as much as he enjoyed being with Rory. It hadn't happened on purpose. Shane wanted to be 'alone' with him, and there was no way Jess was letting his girlfriend of one week into his bedroom. The gazebo was taken by Kirk, trying to sell something completely unnecessary to innocent passerby, and he couldn't think of anywhere where they _could_ be alone.

The next thing he knew, Shane was dragging him in a sickeningly familiar direction. "I found this really ugly bridge over in that little wooded area? It's falling down and completely and totally hideous. No one will bother us there, Jessie."

Jess felt his stomach drop. Only Rory was allowed to call him Jessie, and only on very rare occasions. That pet name combined with her Bambi eyes could get Jess do anything in the world for her. Not that he wouldn't already. Thoughts of Rory only made him even more upset, so he pushed her out of his head, and allowed Shane to lead him to the bridge. They sat down, their feet dangling over the edge, in the same position that him and Rory frequently sat in.

She leaned over and kissed him. It quickly escalated into something more, and Jess tried to push her off. She persisted, however, and that's how it came to be that Rory Gilmore walked in on her best friend French kissing someone on _their_ bridge. It hadn't happened on purpose.

"Jess?!"

* * *

"Rory! Rory, wait! Please, hold on," he cried, desperately grasping at her arm, which she jerked away from him angrily.

"How _could_ you?!" she spat out at him, tears flowing down her face after she gave up the attempt to wipe them away. "I mean… you have a girlfriend, you brought her here?! You _promised! _Jess, did that mean nothing to you?"

"Of _course_ it meant something to me. Look, Rory, I was going to tell you, I just didn't know…"

"How long?" she demanded, folding her arms across her chest.

"I- um, a week," he said, his head down.

Rory opened her mouth as if to yell at him some more, but she only turned on her heels and marched away.

After seeing the look of one who has been betrayed by someone they love on her face, Jess reflected that he would have preferred the yelling.

* * *

She hadn't left her room for anything but school in almost four weeks. It was a hard thing to do, getting up just early enough to make it to school with only minutes to spare, coming straight home off of the bus and locking herself in the house, doing her homework and then usually staring at the ceiling. She had tried reading, but had quickly abandoned that. In almost every single one of her books, Jess's familiar scrawl lined the margins, making notes about the book, and more often than not, underlining parts and writing notes about how a character or a situation would remind him of her. Each stroke of the pen across the paper was like a stab to her heart. She hadn't spoken to Jess in the past four weeks since her discovery of the relationship between him and Shane.

Rory knew that while what she was mad about was that Jess had betrayed her, that wasn't necessarily the only reason she was upset. It seemed to her that the fact that he had used the _bridge_ as a spot to bring his girlfriend was what upset her the most. It just proved to her how well she really knew her supposed best friend. That was supposed to be a spot for the two of them, only. And she was jealous. There was no point in hiding it. She was insanely jealous of this new girl in Jess's life, who seemed to be so much more important that she was.

He had tried to come to her house at least 20 times, but she always had Lorelai answer if she was home, or she ignored it until he went away. If Lorelai _did_ answer, she turned him away with a sad shake of her head. She hadn't been able to get anything out of Rory about what had happened, but she knew it must have been really bad if she wasn't willing to try to work things out.

* * *

Jess was in even worse shape than her, if possible. He had to live with the inescapable guilt that he had caused a lot of pain to someone who meant more to him than anyone- anything else, including his own well-being. After a miserable night knowing that Rory was upset, he left bright and early on Saturday morning, the day after the incident, talking himself in to believing that if he just apologized, everything would go back to the way it was. Shane- well, he could worry about her later. She had disappeared last night when Rory and Jess were talking, and she hadn't called.

He stepped up to the front door and knocked, nervously going over what he could say to her in his head.

The door was thrown open and he had come face to face with a very angry Lorelai.

"What the hell did you do to my daugher?" she screeched. And then she immediately backed down when she saw his red-rimmed eyes and dark circles. "Jess, what happened?" she asked.

"Can I- can I just talk to her? I have to make this right," he said, his voice breaking.

"She's pretty upset..." she started. His eyes darkened. "I'll go ask."

Jess waited just inside the door. He strained his hearing to make out what they were saying in Rory's room.

"Jess is here, baby. He wants to talk to you," he heard Lorelai ask.

Rory sniffed and Jess's eyes snapped shut tightly. He hated that she was crying. "Mom, I can't talk to him. Can you tell him to go?"

"Rory, you know I support you no matter what you do, but he looks... well, he looks aweful. Maybe you should try to work things out. He's really upset."

"Well he _should_ be!" she lashed out, and a fresh wave of tears came over her. "Just tell him to go."

Lorelai crept out of the room and shut it slowly behind her. Jess was leaning against the doorframe, breathing heavily, trying to block the tears that were threatening to escape.

"You have to go," Lorelai said to him.

He nodded and turned away, letting the tears fall.

Since then, he had come back several times, and written letter after letter to her, but whether or not she even read them, he got no response.

* * *

There were notes, too. Rory would wake up with envelopes taped to her window. She read them all, and then promptly disposed of them afterwards. They all said similar things: I'm sorry, I know I should have told you, and other generic apologies. The letter she had just received however, from her mother, was different. Jess had come to the house in one last attempt, and when Lorelai answered the door and started to say "Go away," he simply handed her a folded piece of paper and walked away. He looked so dejected that Lorelai couldn't help but wonder for the millionth time what had happened between them.

"Rory? Honey? It's another letter."

Rory sighed and took it from her mom's hand. She opened it up after Lorelai had left her alone and her eyes widened. All the other letters had been typed, but this one was hand written in pen, and seemed to be smeared and smudged all over the place. She saw blotched sections that could only be the results of tears falling onto the page.

_Rory,_

_I miss you I miss you I miss you I miss you I miss you I miss you I miss you I miss you I miss you I miss you I miss you I miss you I miss you I miss you I miss you I miss you I miss you I miss you I miss you I miss you I miss you I miss you I miss you I miss you I miss you I miss you I miss you I miss you I miss you._

_I know you hate me for what I did. And I don't have an excuse. There could be no excuse for something so terrible. You trusted me, and I broke that. We had a promise. I can't even imagine how upset I would be if you hid something like this from me. _

_I love you, you know? I'll never stop loving you. It's impossible. And why you would want to spend time with me is totally a mystery. All I'm ever going to do is hold you back. I don't deserve someone like you._

_I've been thinking a lot over the past few weeks, and it's clear that you aren't going to forgive me. And with good reason. I don't deserve to be forgiven. My mom called last week. And I wanted to call you and tell you, when I remembered that I couldn't. She wants me to move to New York to live with her._

_This is killing me, Rory. Being here in this town, having everything remind me of you. The only reason I have for staying here besides you is Luke, and while he says he'll miss me, he thinks it might be good for me and Liz if I go to live with her._

_I think I'm going._

_Jess_

* * *

I know, I know. But please don't hate me. You'll see. It'll all work out for them :) Please review! And here's something kinda cool: I don't really enjoy reading reviews that say "good job" or "cute", which I'm sure any other writer out there can sympathise with. So. From now on when you review, pick a quote from the chapter you just read that you really liked and tell me that. :) I like that sort of thing. Thanks!


	4. Chapter 3: Forgiveness and Stuff

Author's Note: Here's Chapter three! Read and review for chapter 4, please. Enjoy!

* * *

The words swam before her eyes as she tried to process what she was reading. He was- leaving? Jess was leaving? And why didn't he think he was good enough for her? That was ridiculous. Her hands were shaking as she kept an iron hold on the scrap of paper. She must have been sitting there for atleast four hours before suddenly realizing what was going on. Jess was actually leaving. She had to do something.

* * *

He realized he was probably being melodramatic. Taking off at the first sign of trouble was something he wasn't proud of. But he had made an honest effort, and four weeks was an awfully long time to wait. If Rory wouldn't even talk to him or respond to his letters, how was anything going to change? He had called Liz directly after getting back from delivering the letter. He was packing his bags and he was leaving Star's Hollow. He shuddered at the thought. To leave this town would be to leave the only place in the world he could ever call home. Home was with Luke. Home was where quirky townsfolk such as Taylor and Kirk, Miss Patty and Babette, Lulu and Morey and the others lived. Home was with Rory. He choked back a sob as he thought of his former- he winced at the word- best friend. To leave her forever would be the hardest thing he would ever have to do. But without her, he didn't see the point in staying here.

Three days after Rory discovered Jess and Shane kissing on the bridge, Shane had showed up at the diner to talk to Jess. The conversation had been cold and unfeeling. She had stated that there was no way she was going to be with someone who was pining after some other girl, and he said that it was a stupid idea to ask her out in the first place. There was a great deal of yelling involved, as well.

He sighed, took a deep breath, and zipped up the last of his bags. Surprisingly, even after living in the tiny little apartment for ten years, his stuff wasn't that spread out or messy. He couldn't sleep that night, and Luke was off on an over-night fishing trip, so he woke no one as he silently packed every single one of his belongings away. It was a difficult task. Everything reminded him of Rory. _Rory bought me this book. I was wearing this shirt on Rory's birthday. This shirt is the color of her eyes..._ He mentally slapped himselft. _Stop thinking about her!_ He scolded himself. But it was a hopeless task. _This is Rory's favorite CD. Rory was with me when I bought that book, she teased me about buying that hair gel..._ He walked down in to the diner, which was empty, considering it was 2 o'clock in the morning.

What he saw shocked him. Rory was standing in the middle of the diner, clutching his letter tightly in her hands. Tears were streaming freely down her face, and Jess couldn't seem to form a sentence. The next thing he knew, he had crossed the room in three long strides and wrapped her in his arms, trying to consol her, whispering comforting nothings into her ear. She only managed to choke out two words before she buried her face into his neck and broke down.

"Don't go."

* * *

He could breath again. How dramatic was it that he claimed to not be able to breath without her? But it was true. He buried his face in her hair and took deep gulping breaths, feeling calm and relaxed for the first time in roughly 5 weeks, since he had asked Shane out.

They had yet to have the inevitable conversation, but both seemed content to wait. Rory had calmed down after a few minutes, but not until, Jess noticed, he promised her that he wasn't going to leave her.

After about an hour of simple holding one another, Jess pulled back slightly- and regretfully- and spoke.

"I am so, so, sorry, Ror. You have no idea," he whispered, keeping his arms tight around her.

"What happened to the blonde?" Rory asked cautiously. She didn't know what she would do if he told her he was still with her.

"Who, Shane?" he asked. "Nah, she's long gone. Out of the picture. Adios."

"I'm sorry," Rory said, although what she wanted to do was do a cartwheel and scream with joy.

"Really? Because I'm not," Jess said, smiling and kissing her forehead before tucking her head back under his and breathing deeply in contentment. "Can you forgive me?"

"Clearly, I've forgiven you, Jess," she said, rolling her eyes and simultaneously wiping away tears.

"Well, just because you don't want me to move doesn't mean you can move past what I did to you," he said, his voice remaining deadly serious.

"I understand why you did it, Jess. And I forgive you," she said.

Jess's attitude changed suddenly and he pushed her away, crossing his arms. "Well, you shouldn't."

"What?" Rory asked, confused and a little hurt.

"You shouldn't forgive me. What I did was so hurtful, so terrible. I can't even forgive myself for it."

"Jess, listen. Admittedly if I had a boyfriend I would have probably handled it a bit better, but hey, I know it wouldn't be easy, telling you about it," she said, putting her hand on the side of his face.

Jess closed his eyes against her touch. She shouldn't be comforting him. It was supposed to be the other way around.

"C'mere," he said, opening his arms and pulling her in to his warm embrace. "It'll never happen again, I promise."

"You scared me," Rory suddenly admitted.

"I scared you?"

"With the letter. I couldn't even breath thinking about what my life would be like without you. Just four weeks without seeing you was killing me. If you had moved..." she trailed off, her gaze unfocused as if she was imagining a different future without Jess in it. Her expression showed clearly that it wasn't a preferable one.

He shuddered at the thought of what his life would have been like had he gone through with the move to New York.

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry..." he whispered, pulling her closer.

Somehow, they ended up on the floor behind the counter. Her head was securly tucked into his neck and his arms were tight around her. Their rude awakening came at 4:00am, when Luke came back from his fishing trip and found them.

* * *

Lorelai had often observed that what Rory and Jess shared could defintely not be considered normal. Their dependancy was astonishing- she had never heard of anyone who was as close as the two of them, including couples in freakishly sappy love stories. They seemed to have a sixth sense pertaining only to them. Once, when the two were only nine years old, Rory had fallen down in the drive way of their house and skinned her knee up. Lorelai was at Doose's picking up some food for a movie marathon, and Rory had really hurt herself. Jess had been their five minutes later, breathing heavily, having run all the way from Luke's. He helped her get inside and cleaned and bandaged her wound. When Lorelai had thanked him and mentioned how lucky it was that he had come over to see her, he shook his head and said, "I wasn't on my way over, I just had a feeling she needed me."

They felt each other's pain, and to watch the other get hurt would have been the ultimate torture to them. Lorelai shook her head as another memory came to her...

_"Mom, I can't sleep," a ten year old Rory said._

_"It's after eleven, and you have school tomorrow," Lorelai said, her brow wrinkling in worry. "Are you sick?" Feeling her daughter's forehead and ascertaining that they were was no fever, she said "Well, hun, just go try to sleep again, I guess."_

_Rory shook her head and said, "I need Jess."_

_Not thirty seconds later, a knock came at the door. Lorelai opened it._

_"Hey, Ror. Couldn't sleep," he said, brushing past Lorelai and into the living room, not at all surprised that Rory was still up. _

_Lorelai's eyebrows raised in amusement as the two walked into Rory's room like it was the most natural thing in the world._

_Poking her head in the door five minutes later, she chuckled lightly at the sight of Rory and Jess curled up on her bed, fast asleep._

And now? What was going on with Rory and Jess was not normal. They had never faught before, and the first time they did, Rory avoided him and locked herself in her room, and Jess didn't sleep (according to Luke) and stayed up all night writing letters to her. Of course, her primary concern was her daugter, but she was worried for Jess, too. If only Rory could tell her what was...

Her musings were interrupted as Rory burst in the door, bright and early on this Sunday morning, and threw her arms around her mother. Lorelai was beyond shocked, of course, considering that it was only 6am, and she had believed her daughter to be asleep in her own room this whole time.

"Everythings, better, Mom. Everything's ok!" she screeched, kissing her mom on the cheek, grabbing a jacket, and running back out the door.

Her mouth hung wide open for a full thirty seconds until she forced it closed.

* * *

Rory approached the scene of the crime cautiously. This was to be her first return to the bridge since the day that she had found Jess and Shane kissing. He was already there, his legs dangled over the edge. A book lay on his lap, unopened.

She was nervous. Not about being with Jess, but about being _here_ with Jess. What if it was different? What if she couldn't come here to be at peace with the world anymore? What if it couldn't be their place, now that it was contaminated with the memory of the start of their very first fight?

Her fears were quickly put to rest. Jess looked up as she walked toward him and opened his arms for her. She eagerly sat down and buried his face into Jess's chest.

Rory was happy again. But something in her wanted more. She had the urge to reach up and kiss her best friend at this moment, but she knew that he couldn't feel the same way.

Jess wanted to kiss her right here, right now. He had known her for ten years, and known for maybe five of those years- since he was eleven- that he was hopelessly in love with her. But she didn't feel the same way.

"Love you, Ror," he said, kissing her on the top of the head. Even though she didn't know exactly what he meant when he said it, he loved being able to tell her that.

"Love you too, Jess."

* * *

Author's Note: AWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW... anyways... please give me a quote that you like from this chapter in your review! (I need ten of those lovely little reviews before I'm going to give you another chapter!)


	5. Chapter 4: Tristan

Author's Note: Mwahahahahahahahaha this chapter's gonna show Jess's VERY VERY VERY protective streak when it comes to his Rory. CUUUUTEness. And some arguing. Keep the reviews comin', and I love the quotes and people's fav. moments. Keep 'em coming. If you haven't noticed, the more reviews, the faster I update. Read on!

Thought I'd give a special thanks to all my amazing reviewers:

imcck, Lynn, udon'tknowmebutiknowme, lillitgirlX2, dodger16, Aqua, mandababe10, topastra, krymsunkiss52, Jeremy Shane, Jason, hplbug, gracielou9291, Curley-Q, IAmNobodySpecial, bornagainvamp, gilmoreintraining, Literati44, gilmoresalwaysforever, Cila, Watergurl123, agiran, alicepractice, ArigatoKarateBaby, Nobody, Ashmonkey16, XxXDrama QueenXxX, Katie, and WilsonHope2.

Wow, that took awhile. Please read and review!

* * *

Three weeks had gone by since the reconciliation of Rory and Jess, and all seemed to be right with the world.

"Jess! Jeez, you are such a pig!" Rory laughed, leaning against him.

"What?" Jess said through a huge mouthful of licorice. The two were watching movies at 2 o'clock in the morning. Since their fight had ended, the two had spent even more time than usual with each other.

"You just stuffed- like - eight pieces of licorice in your mouth," she said.

"Says the queen of eating all things unhealthy," he replied, bumping his shoulder into hers playfully.

"Whatever," she said, resting her head on his shoulder and sighing in contentment.

Jess smiled and buried his face in her hair, wrapping his arms around her tightly. This is where he was supposed to be.

* * *

Rory was leaning up against her locker talking to Madeline, Louise, and Paris when Tristan made a sudden appearence.

"Mare, one date. One date, and I'll get out of your hair," he said to her. The other three girls moved stealthily away, leaving the two alone. Rory reminded herself to kill them later. She opened her mouth to tell him to go away, but found she couldn't say the words. She surprised herself even more, when, decided that speaking wasn't an option, her mouth closed and she involuntarily nodded her head in silent acceptance.

"Really?" Tristan said, clearly shocked.

"Yeah, sure," Rory said, trying to act nochalant, but secretly freaking out.

"Wow, well, ok, then," Tristan said, smiling. "I'll pick you up at 7?"

Rory nodded again and watched him walk away. What had she just done?

* * *

"Rory!" Jess yelled from across the street. Rory closed her eyes in defeat. She had been trying to make it home to talk to her mom and ask for advice before she saw Jess. She didn't have any clue how to tell him that she had a date tonight. "Hey, slow down," he said, running up to her and grabbing her arm.

"Oh, hey Jess," she smiled weakly and Jess's eyes narrowed.

"What?" he said.

"What, what?" was her oh-so-clever come-back.

"Are you ok, Rory?" he said, looking worried but somewhat amused at the same time.

"Oh, yeah, I'm fine. I just have something I have to tell you," she said nervously.

"Yeah?" he said, confused.

"I- have- a date, tonight," she said, the words taking their time to get out of her mouth.

Jess felt as if a million knives were stabbing into his heart. If what Rory had felt walking in on him and Shane had felt even half as bad as this, he suddenly realized why she wouldn't speak to him all those weeks. But he didn't have any reason to be mad. She was telling him, wasn't she? That was a lot better than what he had done.

"Oh. Huh," Jess said.

"I'm sorry," Rory said meekly.

Jess forced a smile, but he was pretty sure that Rory could tell he was faking. "You don't have to be sorry."

"Yeah, I know, I just..." Rory trailed off. Jess grabbed her shoulers firmly and said,

"Just promise me one thing."

"Sure," Rory said, trying to guess where this was going.

"Promise me that we won't let this- guy- who, by the way, I must meet and approve of- come between us," Jess said. He was only partially joking about meeting Rory's date. He wanted to make sure whoever he was, he was good enough for her. Of course, that was probably impossible.

"Yeah, you can meet him, as long as you're on your best behavior. And- I promise he won't come between us. He's- been bugging me about going out with him for a while and I finally just said yes to shut him up. It'll probably just be a one time thing." she said quickly. She might have continued if Jess hadn't covered her mouth with his hand.

"Hey, relax. It's ok, you don't have to justify this to me," he said softly.

"Right, sorry... I'm just a little freaked out, here."

"Don't apologize."

"Right. I'm s-" she stopped when Jess gave her a pointed glare.

"I'm ss-starving? Let's go eat something," she said, grabbing Jess's hand and pulling him into the diner.

* * *

"What am I supposed to _wear_ on a date with _Tristan Dugrey?!" _Rory screeched to her mother.

"Rory's got a date with a rich blonde Chilton boyyyy!" Lorelai sang.

"Mom! Really, _really_ not helping, here."

"Right, sorry. Try this." And with the skilled eyes of a mother, Lorelai swooped into Rory's closet and pulled out the perfect first-date semi-casual/formal just in case outfit.

"How'd you do that?" Rory asked, shocked.

"I've been training for this day all my life," Lorelai asnswered swiftly. She appeared to be very aloof and care-free about the fact that her daughter was going on her first date tonight, but she couldn't help but be slightly disappointed. She had always thought that Jess would be her first date, her first boyfriend. But she supposed that maybe it was just because she knew and liked Jess that she had this wishful thinking. Tristan seemed like a nice boy from the few brief descriptions Rory had given her.

The doorbell rang.

"That's him!" Rory screeched. And so it began.

* * *

Turns out, this wasn't a one-time thing. In a three-week period, 21 days, Rory had gone out with Tristan a total of nine times, and she found herself enjoying it. Her relationship with Tristan didn't seem to have any effect of her and Jess's friendship, or atleast no effect that she could notice.

Jess noticed. Every Friday, Saturday and Sunday night she was with Tristan. During the day, they talked much as they always had, but something was different. Jess suddenly felt weird about hugging her and putting his arms around her. Was this forbidden now that she had a boyfriend? It was on the new couple's three week anniversary (not that they celebrated it, or anything,) that disaster struck.

Rory was walking around town at about 8:30, holding hands with her boyfriend. She still felt all giddy when she thought about actually having a _boyfriend_. Suddenly, with no warning whatsoever, Tristan had spun her around and pressed her against a streetlamp, and started kissing her.

Rory giggled and wrapped her arms around his neck, pulling him in closer. The two remained like that, quite oblivious to the fact that they had an audience.

Jess, who had just run across the street to get something from Doose's, spotted the two making out on his way back to the diner. He felt sick when he recognized that that was _his Rory_ and some other guy doing some major mouth-to-mouth. And in the middle of the town square, too. Rory didn't seem like the kind of person who would approve of PDA, but there they were.

When Rory and Tristan pulled apart, she noticed Jess walking slowly across the street and back into the diner.

"Jess!" she called out to him. She had post-poned the introduction between Tristan and Jess for long enough, and she figured that she might as well get it over with.

Tristan looked confused as Jess made is way slowly and uneasily towards them.

"Tris, there's someone I want you to meet," she said, smiling sweetly up at him. _Tris?_ Jess quite possibly threw up in his mouth a little when he heard the sickly-sweet pet name.

"This is Jess, my best friend," Rory said.

Tristan fixed Jess with a subtle glare and shook the hand that he had offered. "Nice to meet you," Jess said after a few seconds of awkward silence. He was trying to be polite, but what he really wanted to do was punch this guy's lights out. He observed that the moment Jess had come over, Tristan's arm wrapped around her waist in a possessive manner, and Rory was obviously uncomfortable.

"Rory!" a call came from behind them, by Luke's Diner. All three heads whipped around to see Lane waving over frantically to her friend.

"Oh, will you guys excuse me for just one sec?" she smiled sweetly and untangled herself from Tristan's firm grip. As soon as she was out of earshot, Tristan started talking.

"So. You guys are best friends, huh?" Tristan said.

"That's right," Jess said, matching his somewhat menacing and threatening tone.

"Stay away, she's mine," Tristan said. Jess scoffed.

"Rory doesn't _belong_ to anyone, _Tristan,_" he spat his name out and continued. "And besides, I've known her longer. And I swear, if you hurt her in any way, I will personally find you and rip you to shreads."

Jess had somehow ended up directly in front of Tristan as he spoke. He noticed that Tristan had a good two inches on him, but he was still confidant that he could take him.

"Whatever, man," Tristan said. Just then, Rory came back over. Upon observing the very stiff and rigged postures of both the men present, she quickly tried to make the peace.

"Hey, were you boys playing nice?" she said, trying to joke, but feeling that her words were useless against the thick tension surrounding them.

"Hey, Mary, I should get you home," Tristan finally said. _Mary?_ Jess wondered at the nickname.

"Yeah, um, that's probably best, I'll see you tomorrow, Jess?" Rory said.

"Yeah, sure, see ya," Jess said, turning and heading back into the diner.

As soon as Rory and Tristan continued walking toward Rory's house, Tristan began:

"Rory, I don't want you hanging out with that guy," he said.

"Excuse me?" Rory's eyebrows raised in disbelief. He couldn't possibly be jealous of Jess? "Why is that?"

"Well... when you were gone... he sort of... threatened me," Tristan was playing up the unsuspecting victim in the situation, though he knew he had provoked Jess into saying what he had.

"He... he threatened you?" Rory asked, shocked.

"Yeah, he said all this stuff about staying away from you, that he was going to hurt me if I did anything to you," Tristan said. "And, I mean I guess it was great that he was worried about you getting hurt, but I don't know what I did to make him hate me."

Rory looked pissed, and Tristan knew he had won. "I'll make sure to set him straight about this, Tris. That was so- ugh, how could he do that to me?" Now the anger had faded somewhat and she looked more upset than anything else. By this time, they had gotten to Rory's house and Tristan kissed her softly before speaking again.

"Nevermind, Mare, it's ok, I guess I'm just asking you to be careful, ok?" Rory smiled at him and kissed him on the cheek before entering her house. She rolled her eyes at Tristan's insistance on calling her Mary, considering that she still hated the nick-name. But she was too sweet to ever tell _him_ that. Then, her mind turned to the bigger problem at hand. Jess. Had he really threatened Tristan? Jeez, he was over-protective. And what gave him the right to- Rory wheeled around and marched back out the front door.

She wasn't going to take this from him. She had done nothing wrong. The bell above the diner rang as she stepped in. It was empty except for Luke, who, upon seeing Rory, informed her that Jess was upstairs if she wanted to talk to him. Rory thanked him and marched up the stairs. Without bothering to knock, she swung the door open and walked angrily up to Jess, who was laying on the couch reading.

"Some best friend _you_ are," was her opening statement. Jess closed his book and looked up at her, shocked.

"What?" he said, unable to form any other coherant statement.

"Did you threaten Tristan?" she demanded.

"Well... Rory, listen, he told me to stay away from you and I..."

"Just answer. Did you tell him you would hurt him if he did anything to me?"

"Well, yeah, but..."

"God!" Rory reached for a pillow and threw it at him, hard. "I can't believe this! Tristan is an _amazing_ boyfriend, and I care a lot about him. I thought that maybe, just _maybe_ my best friend could be happy for me, but it sounds like that's too much to ask."

"Whoa, Rory, hold on a sec, let me explain-"

"I don't need you to explain Jess. Just- don't talk to me," Rory said, the tears building up in the back of her eyes as she stormed back out of the room. Why was she so upset? What Jess had done was bad, but not _that_ bad... she guessed it was because she had been thinking this whole time that Jess supported her and her decision to date Tristan, and then it turned out that it wasn't true.

Jess flopped down on his bed, his eyes screwed tightly shut. Things had just gotten back to normal, how had he screwed it up already?

* * *

AN: Ok, please put your favorite quote/moment in your review, and don't give up hope! Rory and Jess WILL BE TOGETHER!

Just by the way, in the show I actually kind of liked Tristan and him calling Rory "Mary" and everything, but I'm getting tired of using Dean as the bad-guy (even though I hate him) so I needed someone else, and I'm too lazy to create my own character. Yeah. So, just, review please!


	6. Chapter 5: More Fighting

Author's Note: Ok, just to make something clear, Rory would be an idiot to think that Tristan had just been sitting there innocently and then Jess attacked him. She knows that the two had gotten into some sort of argument. What she was mad about was that Jess had actually threatened him. She's letting "Tris" (ewwww) off the hook because she thinks that he's just insecure in his new relationship (Ha. Tristan. Insecure. That's a good one), but _Jess_, she believes, should know better. It's the fact that he wasn't being supportive of her that made her upset.

Thanks so much for all the fav. quotes. I love love love love love reading them. I'm still getting a few people just saying "great job, update soon," but considering how many people have read this vs. how many people have reviewed, I'm not going to complain. Ok, I think you'll like this chapter. In case you are wondering, we are looking at Jess and Rory FINALLY getting together in approx. two chapters.

**Important: For the purpose of this fic, we are going to pretend that this is some time in the middle of June, toward the end of Rory and Jess's sophomore year. I know I never said when during the year it was before, but I am now.**

Ok, I'll shut up now and let you read...

* * *

"Rory?" Jess said quietly through the window of her bedroom. "Please, talk to me," he said. It was the next morning, and Jess was going through the same thing he had gone through only a few short weeks ago. Only the last fight that the two had had was so much worse than this, because this time, Jess truly felt that he wasn't entirely in the wrong. He thought that if he could explain what had happened, Rory would really have no reason to stay mad at him.

Rory closed her eyes in frustration and went to the window, sliding it up fiercly.

"What?" she lashed out at him, her arms folded across her chest. Jess flinched.

"Hey, you don't really believe that Tristan was all innocent in this, do you?" he said, disbelieving that anyone- especially Rory- could be so naiive.

She sighed deeply. "Look, I know he probably said something to make you angry, I know that you guys were just being- guys, and I know that you were doing what you did because you care about me. I got upset because I thought you were on-board with this. I mean, I thought you respected my judgement. Jess, you need to trust that I can take care of myself."

"I know you're strong enough to take care of yourself, but that doesn't stop me from worrying about you. He was talking about you like you were a piece of meat, and I just couldn't take it, so I told him to be good to you, or I was going to kick his ass. And it's true, you know. He hurts you, he's going to wish he was dead," Jess said, his eyes glinting murderously.

Rory smiled slightly and opened the window wider, a silent invitation for him to enter her room. The moment he was inside, she wrapped her arms tightly around him. "I don't want to fight," she said into his chest.

"Neither do I," he said, his eyes closing. He was beyond relieved that she had forgiven him so quickly. "I'm sorry, you know. I should have trusted you."

"It's ok," she said, looking up at him affectionately.

"No, it's not. It's just that no one is ever going to be good enough for you, and I'm going to find _something_ wrong with anyone that you date,"

"Hey, I said it's ok, relax," Rory said, kissing his cheek softly. "So. You want to go do something today?" she asked.

"Yeah," he said, smiling.

* * *

Walking around town after looking at the bookstore for awhile, the pair were eating ice cream cones. Jess had his arms draped casually across her shoulder. They were laughing and joking like there was no Tristan, and everything was going to be ok. If only they knew how much more drama they had ahead of them.

Jess was staring, quite openly, at Rory as they strolled slowly down the street.

"Wha?" she said through a mouthful of ice cream.

"Did you know that you are absurdly beautiful?" Jess said. He didn't know what had made him say it, but her question had thrown him off and he had simply blurted out what he was thinking.

"Jess, stop," Rory said, blushing.

"What? I'm serious," he said. _Might as well, there's no backing down now,_ he thought.

"Well, you're my best friend, don't you think it's possible that you're just a little biased?"

"Of course I'm biased. That doesn't mean it's not true," Jess said. His eyes were smoldering. Rory had a Twilight flashback and thought of the several descriptions about Edward and his amazing eyes. She hadn't believed that it was possible for eyes to look like they were slowly melting liquids, burning into you in a way that made you think all your inner-most thoughts were written clearly on your forehead. But Jess was doing it right now. Two pools of chocolate were staring at her so seriously that she blushed deeper and looked away.

"Thanks," she said softly. She looked so shy and innocent that Jess couldn't help dropping a chaste kiss against the side of her head. That's when they saw Tristan walking towards him.

Jess removed his arm from around Rory quickly, but he didn't move away, so they were still standing in a way that made their arms touch.

"Hey, Tristan," Rory said nervously, stepping away from Jess and giving Tristan a quick kiss.

"Hey," he said. He was talking to Rory but his gaze was fixed on Jess. His glare clearly said: _Stay away from her._ Jess's glare was a clear response. _Make me._

"So... Mary. You want to catch a movie later?" he asked, his eyes still not leaving Jess.

"Um... yeah? Yeah, a movie would be good. You'll call me?" Rory asked, somewhat desperate to get rid of Tristan. She cared about Tristan deeply, but he seemed to be an obvious sore spot with Jess.

"Ok, I'll call," he said, smiling and kissing her deeply and walking off.

"He came all the way down here to ask you out tonight?" Jess said, incredulous.

"I... guess," Rory said, kind of confused. "Whatever. Let's go eat something."

"You just had ice cream," Jess said.

"Yes, but that was dessert. Now we need lunch."

"Right. Should have known," he said, smiling, placing his arm back around her shoulder.

"Yes. You should have," Rory smiled and leaned against Jess as they walked along.

* * *

Jess looked up as the bell above the diner rang. It was late- almost 10:00pm, but he had procrastinated and Luke was already asleep in anticipation of an early delivery the next day. He was stuck closing the diner. He was shocked that someone had entered so late, when the sign clearly said "Closed". The only people allowed to do that were Rory and Lorelai, and this was certainly not either one of them.

"Tristan," Jess said shortly.

"Stay away, Jess," Tristan began, staying in the doorway. Jess came around so he was leaning against the counter facing him.

"I don't think I will," he said, his voice boyishly cocky.

Tristan scoffed. "I _said,_ stay away from her, Jess."

"She's my best friend, I'm not staying away from her. Look, for whatever insane reason, she wants to be with you. And she's happy. I have done nothing to get in the way of that, but I'm not going to stop spending time with her."

"You have done something to get in the way. Just you existing is getting in the way," Tristan responded, taking a few steps toward him.

"Well that's too bad," Jess said. He started to turn around to continue to wipe down the counter, but in three quick strides Tristan had crossed the Diner, spun him around with one hand, and punched him square in the eye with the other.

Jess was thrown back and his head hit the counter. He went down, the breath completely knocked out of him. Tristan was already out the door by the time Jess's breathing slowed down enough for him to get up.

* * *

He had sported quite a nice black eye by the time it was the next morning. Luke had started to ask what had happened, but when he saw Jess's glare he changed his mind. The entire town was gossiping about it, but even Miss Patty seemed to get the memo that talking to him about it wasn't an option. Rory was the only one exempt from this apparently, because the moment she saw his eye as she walked in to the diner that Monday morning, she gasped and ran up to him.

"Jess, what-" she started.

"Don't Rory. It's nothing," he responded.

"It doesn't look like nothing. Were you in a fight?" she asked.

"No."

"Jess, what happened?"

"Don't want to talk about it," Jess tried to walk away but Rory grabbed his arm.

"Tell me what the hell happened to you, Jess!" she said, raising her voice.

Jess covered her mouth with his hands and called out "Taking my break," to Luke before dragging her upstairs to the apartment.

"Rory, I really really don't want to tell you this."

"Too bad," Rory was indignant and stubborn.

"It's going to hurt you," he warned.

"Who were you fighting with?" she said accusingly.

"No one! God, let me finish."

"Right, sorry."

"You aren't going to believe me, Rory," he said, looking down.

"Yes, I will. Why wouldn't I?" she said. At this point she was beyond confused about what Jess could be talking about.

"I- do you promise you'll believe me?"

"Yeah, of course."

"It- was- Tristan," he said, muttering his name. She still heard him.

"Tristan?!" she screeched.

"Yeah, he came into the diner last night after it was closed and he told me to stay away from you. And after I told him no, he punched me and walked away,"

Rory's demeanor changed suddenly from shocked to angry.

"And you didn't hit him first?"

"What? Rory, no, I just told you what happened."

"He wouldn't just go around punching people."

Jess nodded his head slowly and turned away from her. "Figures," he muttered to himself.

"'Figures' what, Jess?" Rory said, practically screaming.

"Figures that you would believe your boyfriend of less than a month over me! I'm supposed to be your best friend! You're supposed to trust me, to believe me!" his voice was raised too, a sure sign of trouble. Jess was generally very good at keeping his cool. "Do you remember _promising_ me that Tristan wouldn't come between us? Do you?"

"Yes, but that's not the-"

"Look, Rory, I tried to be supportive, I figured that having a boyfriend would take some getting used to so I thought I'd give you some time to adjust. But how long's this going to take? You take his side before mine and every time I want to call you on the weekends I don't because I figure you probably have plans with him. We've already fought because of him once. And now, this?! You don't believe me? Why would I make that up?!"

"Well, you've lied to me _before_, SO WHY SHOULD THIS BE ANY DIFFERENT!" It came out loudly, and then Rory clamped her hand over her mouth. "Oh, God..."

"What?" Jess said, still snapping at her. Rory, being the stubborn person that she was, didn't back down.

"You lied to me about Shane, so how can I trust you, now?" she said. She felt tears coming.

"I don't know, Rory. Maybe you can't," he said, sighing and brushing past her, down into the diner and out the door.

* * *

Jess walked up to the phone in the diner and picked it up hestitantly. He had gone to the bridge to attempt to cool down for a few hours, half expecting Rory to show up and apologize. He knew that if she had come, he would have said sorry and everything would have gone back to "normal". But he also knew that there was bound to be several more fights of the same kind if she stayed with Tristan.

He chuckled humerously. Every fight the two had gone through had something to do with one of them dating someone else. Perfect.

Picking up the phone, he dialed a number that he had memorized, for whatever reason.

"Hello?" a voice said on the other line.

"Liz, it's me, Jess."

* * *

Author's Note: _gasp gasp gasp gasp gasp gasp gasp _OH NO!! But it's ok. It'll be good. Need ten reviews, please and thank you. And also... in your review, along w/ your fav. quote/moment, I'd like to know whether you want me to end this story like... a few chapters after Rory and Jess get together, or if you want me to keep it going and make it really long. If I keep it going, I'll keep on updating with the regular frequency. If you want it to end pretty soon, I'll write another Lit story later that has another plot idea, but I probably won't start it for a while. Let me know!


	7. Chapter 6: Liz Knows

Author's Note: Ok, so based on the reviews, this story will continue on longer. Thanks for reviewing!!

FallenAngel5297: Yeah I saw the trailor! It's amazing! Best books ever! I couldn't resist putting in the reference. I'm glad you got that. :)

Again, thanks to all the people who continue to review every chapter. Please continue to do so!

Ok. Just thought I'd say this: If any of you want to read another Lit story of mine, go to my profile and read Out of Sight, Out of Mind. It's just a one-shot, and I'm very very very proud of it. Please read it and review it. It's sad, so be warned. Just to let you know: This story's ending will be nothing like the end of the one-shot, so don't worry. :)

**Disclaimer: I always forget to do this... but anyways, I don't own Gilmore Girls. How sad**.

* * *

"Tristan?" Rory asked, stepping tentitavely up to her boyfriend. School had just ended. All day she had avoided him, to prevent the inevitable conversation. She knew. She wasn't stupid. She knew Tristan had been the one to give Jess the black eye. But she didn't _want_ to believe it. She didn't want to think that someone she had trusted- someone like Tristan- would hurt someone she cared about so much. But Jess wouldn't lie. _She_ had been the one to lie when she had said that she couldn't trust Jess. It wasn't true. Rory would have trusted Jess with her life.

"Oh, hey, Mare."

She winced at the nick-name. "I need to talk to you, Tristan." she said, keeping her voice business-like. The couple made their way into the parking lot.

"Yesterday I went to the diner to see Jess, and..." she didn't want to have to say it, but she figured she might as well just get it over with. "Did you have... anything to do with him having a black eye?"

There was no answer for a few seconds, but he didn't need to open his mouth. She saw the guilt in his eyes plainly, and her eyes widened. She had known, somewhere inside, that Tristan had done it, but to have it confirmed...

"How _could_ you punch my best friend?!" She screamed, drawing several pairs of eyes toward her.

"Mare, calm down," he said. He was talking to her like she was a spooked horse, and she hated it.

"No, no, I will NOT calm down. I _trusted_ you! And despite what people might believe, I give out my trust very sparingly. And now? You know what, there isn't even any question of what happens now," she said.

"Mary-"

"Tristan, we are _over_. And I HATE the name Mary!"

* * *

Tears were streaming down her face as she ran toward the center of town. She had tried to keep herself calm and collected on the bus ride home, and had failed entirely. Crying. She seemed to be doing a lot of that lately. But she wasn't crying because she had lost her first boyfriend. She was crying at the possibility of losing _Jess._

Entering the diner, she didn't see him right away. For some reason, even though her head told her that he was probably just upstairs or at the bridge, she had a sinking feeling in her stomach. Something was off.

Walking up to the counter, she called Luke over and smiled at him. He looked... nervous? Yup, something was wrong.

"Hey, Luke, um... I was wondering if you knew where Jess was? I really need to talk to him," she said, slightly panicky.

The look on Luke's face did not make her feel any better. "Uh... Rory, listen. He- is actually- in New York right now," Luke said hestitantly.

"New York?" she whispered.

"Yeah, he's staying with- well, he's staying with his mom this Summer, sort of- a- test run,"

"T-test run? Test run for what?" at this point she was hyperventilating.

"Well, you know he doesn't make friends easily... if everything goes well this Summer then the move might... be... permanant..." Luke shifted his baseball cap uncomfortably and watched as Rory's eyes filled quickly with tears.

"No, no, no. This isn't happening. This is some kind of sick joke. You're lying to me. Tell me you're lying," she said, trying to keep herself from breaking down.

"I- uh, wish I was, Rory," Luke said. He looked apologetic, but he also looked upset for other reasons. Rory knew how much Luke and Jess truly cared for one another, even though they didn't like to show it.

"I have- to- get to New York. Now. Oh, my God, Jess _moved?_" She said, her thoughts not staying on the same path.

"Maybe. He _might_ move," Luke said, trying to make her feel better. It didn't work.

"Oh, God, this is all my fault! I have to, get a... cab, a bus, something," she said, distractedly.

At that moment a ringing above the door signaled Lorelai's entrance. "Rory, what's wrong?" she said, upon seeing her daughter. She looked as if she had just seen a ghost.

"Mom, I have to stop Jess from moving to New York forever. I'll be back late!" she called. Her explination didn't do much to help the older Gilmore girl out, and she went to the counter to get the whole story from Luke.

* * *

"Oh, hello, there, hun," a blonde woman said when she opened the door.

"Hi... are you, um, Liz?" Rory was nervous, clearly.

"Yeah, I am,"

"Ok... um... I'm so sorry to bother you, Liz, I... Is... Jess home by any chance?"

"No, I'm afraid he's not. Do you want to come in?" Liz seemed friendly enough, but the whole situation was so weird that she thought about turning around and going straight home. But she needed to make things right with Jess, and she didn't care if it meant sitting through an awkward conversation with his mom.

"So," Liz continued as Rory nodded and entered the apartment. "_You_ must be Rory."

"You know my name?" Rory said, confused. She didn't know that Jess was even in contact with his mom.

"Well, Luke has told me all about the pretty little girl that my son is in love with," she said. Rory blushed, but Liz plowed right on. "He didn't break your heart did he? Man, I'll have to hurt him if he-"

"Um... actually, Liz, we're just friends. Or, we were just friends... I sort of- screwed things up. And I'm here because I need to make it right again."

"Oh. Well, Jess will be home late, probably."

They continued talking for about an hour, and Rory decided that she liked this blunt and forward woman, who seemed to be layed back and easy, almost to the extreme. Eventually, Liz told her goodnight and went to her own room, leaving Rory to sleep on the couch after she had texted her mom and told her where she was staying.

* * *

When she woke up, she had a blanket over her and a pillow under her head. She pulled out her phone and saw that it was three in the morning. Who could have- Then she glanced in the chair next to her and saw Jess, using the light of a flashlight to read by.

"Hey," she said, sleep making her voice raspy and deep.

"What are you doing here," was his reply, no emotion whatsoever coloring his tone.

"I- came to- Listen, Jess... I know it was Tristan." she was nervous under his expressionless gaze.

"Huh. Finally decided to believe me?"

"Well.. Tristan... Kind of... admitted it. I broke up with him," she was pleading with him, trying to show with her eyes how sorry she was.

"Well, that's just great," he said sarcastically. "What are you doing here?" he repeated his earlier question.

"I came to apologize. I'm so sorry, Jess. And... I lied, back there in the diner? When I said I couldn't trust you. That's not true. I would trust you with my life, no questions asked."

"Well, Rory, how can I trust _you_? I mean, I tried. I tried so hard. I didn't do anything to make Tristan hate me, and when _he _attacks_ me_, you don't believe me? How could you do that, Rory? How _could_ you do that to me?" His tone was harsh and biting, and Rory winced.

"Jess..." her voice cracked. A few tears were cascading down her cheeks, unchecked. "Please, forgive me, please. I- I'm... I need you to forgive me and just come home, ok?" she was breaking slowly.

And the next thing she knew, his arms were around her. "Shhhh..." his fingers brushed through her long brown hair in a soothing pattern, and Rory snapped.

"What are you doing comforting me? I deserve to be miserable. I deserve for you to hate me."

"Well, I don't hate you," Jess said. "I could never hate you. And you might deserve to be miserable, but watching you be miserable is making _me_ miserable, and I don't think _I_ deserve it."

Rory let out a strangled laugh and buried her faced deeper into his shoulder. A few minutes of silence passed. "Jess? Do you think you can ever forgive me?" Rory whispered, afraid of the answer.

He pulled back long enough to give her a lingering kiss on the forehead. "It's impossible to stay mad at you. Really not fair," he said, tucking her head back under his. He kissed the top of her head and then his hand replaced his lips, smoothing back her light-chocolate colored tresses.

A comfortable silence fell over the room, and Rory took several shaky breaths to bring her heart-rate back to normal. He had forgiven her. She could relax.

A new fear suddenly came into her conscious. "Jess? Are you-" she couldn't bring herself to say it.

"What?" Jess asked. "Staying in New York?" they had a way of thinking the same things at the same time, so he had a pretty good idea of what she was trying to say.

"Yeah."

Jess snorted a very Jess-like snort. "Of course not. It was a stupid experiment, coming here. My mom- well, she's nice, but she's- not stable. She can't take care of me. She can't do anything for me."

Rory let out a sigh of relief. "But... this summer?"

"I have to stick it out. For Liz." Both of them closed their eyes. In their heads flashed by what this summer would bring. It would be their first one apart since they had met. Jess's grip unconciously tightened around her.

* * *

Star's Hollow High had already ended for summer, and Rory still had one more week. Jess was going to be coming back from his mom's at the end of August, about a week before the two would start their Junior year. It was about 10:00am on a Saturday morning, the morning after Rory had run to New York.

"I'll call," Jess said.

"And write," Rory added.

"Yeah..." Jess said.

Rory took a deep breath and started to walk towards the bus that would take her back to Stars Hollow.

"Wait," Jess said, grabbing her arm and spinning her around. He pulled her into his arms and held her close for a few immesurable seconds before stepping back- or trying to.

"I'm not done," Rory said, keeping her vice-grip firm. Jess stepped back to her and put his arms around her waist, lifting her up and crushing her body into his. "I'll miss you," Rory said.

"Me too," he said, stepping away from her with regret.

"Bye, Jess."

"Bye, Rory.

* * *

"Jessie?"

"Jeez, Liz, don't call me that," Jess said. His relationship with his mom was so disconected that he didn't call her 'Mom'.

"I want to talk to you."

"What?" he said, finally giving up on the book he was _trying_ to read, and giving his full attention to his mother.

"I take it you and Rory aren't fighting any more?"

Jess nodded.

"And this means, I take it, that you will be wanting to go back to Stars Hollow once the summer's over.

Jess hesitated, but then nodded again.

"Right." Liz paused. "Are you guys going to get together any time soon?"

"What?" Jess was so startled by the question that he broke his silence.

"You and Rory. The energy. It's obvious that there's a real connection."

"Liz, listen, whether or not _I_ want it to happen, it's a moot point." He was opening up to this woman who was his mother, but for all intents and purposes, was a complete stranger. A card every Christmas and 20 on his birthday, and that was the extent of their relationship. But he needed to talk to _someone_ about this. Rory was obviously not an option, and she had started the conversation...

"Why is it a moot point?" Liz asked.

"Because she doesn't feel the same way," he said, looking down.

Liz chuckled at her son's denseness. "Jess, trust me. She does."

"How do you-"

Liz held up her hand to stop his question, and responded calmly. "I'm a girl. I know."

* * *

Author's Note: Couldn't resist putting some Liz in there. So. Now. How's their summer apart going to go? And what about the reconciliation after not seeing each other for _three months_?? Hmmmmm intrigue. Ok. 15 reviews. (wow I raised the price!) gasp! Give me a quote/moment please and thank you! REVIEW REVIEW REVIEW!


	8. Chapter 7: Finally

Chapter 7! An early Chapter because it was done and I was feeling nice.

Author's Note: Ok. Here it is. I love this chapter. Yay. WARNING: PURE LIT FLUFF PURE LIT FLUFF. with a very dramatic scene in there... But dramatic in a good way. Excited? Read on, and **PLEASE READ THE AUTHOR'S NOTE AT THE END! VERY IMPORTANT!!**

* * *

"Hey."

"Hey. What're you doing?" Rory asked Jess.

"Talking to you," he said. Rory could hear his smirk through the phone.

"Ha. But seriously. What have you been up to today?" she asked with curiosity. This would be their fourth phone conversation. It had been two weeks since Rory had left him in New York. Jess would have called every day, but the long distance calls costed a lot. So they wrote, mostly. But hearing her voice was a necessity. Absence makes the heart grow fonder. You always hear it. But Jess was finally experiencing what it meant.

So was Rory, for that matter. She could no longer deny that she had far from platonic feelings about Jess. But she couldn't act on them. Ever. And especially not while he was in New York.

"Nothing. I sat at home all day. And read. You?" Jess responded.

"Ah, you're so boring," Rory said.

"Too bad. What are you doing right this minute? No lying."

"Talking to you," Rory said, echoing Jess's remark from earlier.

Jess groaned. "No fair. What _else_ are you doing?"

"Reading."

"Reading what?"

"Something stupid."

"Why are you reading something stupid?" Jess asked.

"I have to read it for school. Summer reading assignment."

"Ooooh... right, because you go to a smart person school," Jess said, rolling his eyes.

"Yes I do."

Jess sighed. This was hard. He'd never spent this much time without seeing her in person. Well... technically that wasn't true. But putting the incident with Shane aside, the longest he had ever spent without Rory before was a week when Rory and Lorelai went to Disney Land when they were only 9 years old.

"Miss you," he said. Jess was not supposed to be the sentimental type. But with Rory, any part of the "rough around the edges" look he tried to keep up just slipped away.

"Miss you too," Rory replied. "I should probably go."

"Right. And write," Jess said, and then chuckled.

"Confusing. But I actually got that," Rory said, smiling.

"Love you," he said.

"Love you too, Jess. Bye."

"Bye."

_click_

_

* * *

_

Rory,

_I was going to start this letter by writing I miss you about fifty times, but I figure that might bring up negative memories for you. But it's true. I do miss you. A lot. New York is boring. Can you believe I just said that? Neither can I. But seriously. I just walk around Washington Square Park most of the time, reading. I _did_ however, find this amazing hot dog stand that I have to take you to. And a record store. Oh, my God, you wouldn't believe. The guy in there has some insane photographic memory or something... he can name any album and song you could possibly think of. You have to come here to see it._

_But truthfully, I'd rather be in Stars Hollow. Truth is, the town has grown on me over the past ten years. Even Kirk is becoming tolerable. But I draw the line there. I still hate Town Meetings, and I still hate Taylor. I guess I really am Luke's nephew._

_I can't think of anything else to say. Because I'm boring. And nothing happens here._

_How's Luke? And your mom? Lane? Zach and Brian? See, you have so much more to write about. No fair. Write back. Soon. _

_Jess_

_

* * *

_

Jess,

_Luke is fine. I think he's bored without you. My mom is good. Great actually. She has had an ephiphany. Now, normally this could lead to nothing positive, but I think she has FINALLY realized that she has feelings for Luke. Yay! Now all we have to do is trap them in a closet together for a few hours. That should do the trick. Lane and Zach are still going strong, and I think Brian has found someone. Lane had alluded to the fact that they might have a new groupie following Hep Alien around._

_Oh! Speaking of Hep Alien, they booked a gig! True, it's at a high school party, but still. It's something. It's tonight. I'm thinking about checking it out, but it'll probably be boring without you. _

_Who knew how boring my life was? Seriously, I think you are the only exciting person to talk to. Besides my mom. Last night we had the worst movie night ever. But in a way that totally made it the best. Is it weird that I'm so freakishly close to my mom? Sometimes I think it is. Write back. Soon. And tell me more about what you're doing there. _

_Miss you,_

_Rory_

* * *

About two and a half months later...

Jess was sitting on an old bus seat, a book open in his lap. He couldn't concentrate on it. In only 30 minutes, he'd be stopping at the Stars Hollow bus stop. And he'd see Rory. They had agreed on the phone last night that she would meet him there.

He was nervous. It didn't make sense to be nervous. Rory was his best friend. He could be himself around her. He didn't need to care about how he looked or if what he said sounded stupid. But he did. He cared a lot.

The bus stopped. This was it.

He was in the back, and it seemed to him that all the annoying people on the bus with him were taking way too long to get off. Why were they moving so slowly? Eventually, he made it out the door carrying a huge duffel bag. Looking around, at first he couldn't find her.

Then, "Jess!" her voice carried across the square clearly, and he turned. There she was. She was beautiful. More so than he remembered. She started running towards him, and he dropped his bag and ran in her direction. He felt like he was in a movie. Only he knew in a movie, the two characters would meet in the middle and share a long and passionate kiss. And so he kissed her.

* * *

"Jess!" Rory spotted him exciting the bus and her excitement bubbled over. After three months without him, she was more than ready to have her best friend back.

She ran as fast as she could toward him, and he dropped his bag and came toward her quickly. Before she could say one word to him, he had placed his hands roughly on either side of her face, and pressed his lips against hers.

She responded eagerly, for once not analyzing what was happening, and going with the moment. Her arms found their way around his neck and she pulled herself closer to him. Her lips were on fire. If asked to describe what she was feeling right now later, she knew that she wouldn't be able to. Even a girl who wanted to write for a living couldn't find the words to explain it.

Finally. Finally was the only thought that Jess had room for in his head as his senses swam with everything that was happening. Rory. Rory Rory Rory. She was everywhere. Both of her hands were tangled in his hair, and he loved the feeling. One of his hands dropped down to her lower back, pressing her closer to him. The other one slid to the back of her neck, tilting her head up for a different angle as he deepened the kiss.

They stayed like that for as long as they could. Neither one cared that they were standing in the middle of a public setting, and that the news of this particular kiss was probably going to spread through the entire town before the end of the day. Their bodies and mouths were molded together. He knew it sounded cliche, but he couldn't help but notice how well she... fit with him. Of course, this whole thing was cliche. They were both aware of it, and they thought it hilarious.

Rory knew that if she read a book with this particular scene in it, she would have rolled her eyes. Jess could remember reading tons of descriptions and seeing it portrayed in countless movies- the First Kiss. Or, he guessed, technically this was their second kiss. But what he didn't know was how right on all those books and movies had been. He wouldn't have been surprised to hear fire-works going on in the backround.

Rory let out a soft moan and the two pulled away, gasping wildly for breath. They stayed close together, their foreheads touching as they tried to get their heart-beats back to a semi-normal pace.

"Oh my God," Jess said, staring at her, still breathing heavily.

"Yeah," Rory exhaled.

"What-" Jess started, but Rory kissed him again, effectively cutting of the use of his mouth, and the train of his thought. The second kiss was less rough and heated, but equally amazing. When they finally broke apart for the second time, Rory spoke.

"So... do you think... us..." she looked down.

Jess tilted her head up so that their eyes locked. "Yeah," he said softly, kissing her nose and then her lips lightly.

Rory smiled and then frowned slightly at what she saw behind Jess's shoulder.

"What?" Jess said.

"We have an audience," Rory said, nodding her head in the direction of the crowd. Kirk, Babette, Miss Patty, East-Side Tilly, Gypsy, Andrew, Taylor, and Sookie were all staring at the pair. A few of them just looked shocked. Kirk and Miss Patty were already on their cell phones, telling the news to members of the town not fortunate to be here witnessing it for themselves.

"Yes we do," Jess said, grinning. "Let's give them something to talk about." And with that, he leaned down and kissed her again.

* * *

One week. One week of absolute bliss. Rory and Jess had spent all of it together, and tonight was going to be their last night of summer.

Rory was waiting for him to come over. He was supposed to be here any minute. She was anxious for his arrival- she hadn't seen him all day. He claimed it was because he was planning something and she couldn't see anything until he picked her up at 6:00. She missed him. She _hated_ being away from him.

There was a knock on the door and Rory sprung up off the couch and opened it, ridiculously eagar.

"Rory," Jess breathed in relief and kissed her. Rory pressed herself against him and deepened their kiss. In a tricky maneuver, Jess closed the front door with his foot, his lips never leaving hers. They shuffled across the room to the couch and continued their make-out session.

A good ten minutes later, they stopped. They had ended up horizontal, Jess half on top of Rory. They sat up, Rory trying to smooth down her now messed up hair.

"Hey," she said breathlessly.

"Hi there," he responded, kissing her again softly.

"So, should we go?" she asked, standing.

"Hey," he said, frowning and grabbing her wrist. He pulled her back onto the couch. "I haven't seen you all day." and with that, he reconnected their lips.

Rory broke away briefly to say "Here we go again..." before kissing him back.

* * *

It was another half an hour before they made it out of the house.

"Where are we going?" Rory asked, her arm around Jess's waist and his around her shoulder.

"Bridge."

"Bridge? I thought we were eating," Rory said, confused.

"Yeah, we are."

The bridge came into view, and Rory gasped. "Jess... did you? Why did you do this? This... is..."

"You like it?" Jess said, smiling. He grabbed her hand and lead her over to the picnic blanket he had put out.

"Why did you do this?" Rory asked.

"I- I just wanted to," Jess said, kissing her softly.

"Wow, wow. Thank you. This is amazing," Rory grinned widely and opened the picnic basket.

After eating, the two had pushed the food aside and layed back on the blanket, looking out at the stars.

"Jess?" she said softly.

"Hmmm?" he said, his head buried in her hair.

"This is the cheesiest and most romantic thing anyone has ever done for me," she said, laughing slightly.

"Glad you liked it,"

"You're turning soft," she said, giggling.

"Only for you," he responded, and Rory laughed louder.

"Now _that_ was cheesy."

"Well, it's still true," Jess said, grinning and kissing her again.

They broke apart and Rory whispered softly, "I love you."

Jess had heard her say it before. But never while they were dating. He closed his eyes and let a feeling of contentment wash over him. "I love you too," he said. And this time, she knew exactly what he meant.

* * *

**Important Author's Note: PLEASE READ!! In your review, along w/ your favorite quote or moment, there's something very important you need to do. I have two ideas for how this story will go.**

**1. We find out about Jess's summer away from Rory. Hmmmm... maybe something important happened there that Jess isn't telling Rory. WARNING: Lots of kidnapping/New York gang type drama. And hospitals.**

**OR**

**2. We do some more Jess/Rory/Tristan drama- but not the boring jealousy stuff. I have some really good stuff planned. WARNING: Lots of missing persons and more hospitals.**

**Either way will be fine with me. Please let me know!**

**Oh, and PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE read Out of Sight, Out of Mind, my Lit oneshot, and review it. It'll give you something to do while waiting for the next chapter.**

**Thank you!!**


	9. Chapter 8: Tristan again?

I'm sorry for not putting a chapter up yesterday... I had to wait for people to review and vote for which direction they wanted the story to go.

And the winner is... **Option #2: Rory/Jess/Tristan Drama! By ONE VOTE! **

Yay! Ok, sorry for anyone who wanted to see the other option. But I assure you, this way is pretty darn cool. There'll be some twists in there that you will _not_ see coming. Maybe some time in the future I will write another story with the other plot thrown in there. I hope that you continue reading this anyways. And keep the reviews coming, please. I love reading what your favorite parts are. :)

* * *

"Rory?" Lorelai called, knocking on the door to her room. "Is it safe to come in?" she said, her tone teasing.

"Mom!" Rory said, her face coloring.

"Well, Jess is in there, just making sure," she said, opening the door with her hand over her eyes.

"Mother, we are doing our homework. You can look."

"Well yesterday you told me you were doing homework and..." Lorelai said, her eyebrows raising suggestively.

Rory was blushing madly, but Jess, who had been lying by her on her bed silently the whole time, just smirked, thinking back to the day before.

_"Rory?" Lorelai said, opening the door to her daughter's room._

_Rory and Jess were horizontal on the bed, Rory's hands were tangled in his hair and Jess had his hand on either side of her, so as not to rest too much weight on her delicate frame as they kissed passionately._

_"Uh... Rory! Jess! My, God, I'm scarred for life!"_

_They pulled apart quickly. Jess sat up and pulled Rory with him._

_"Lorelai," he acknowledged her with a nod of his head, keeping his arm around Rory's waist. He didn't seem in the least embarrassed._

_"Uh... Mom... hi..." Rory said, her face beet red. Eventually she just turned and buried her head in Jess's chest. "This is humiliating," she mumbled._

_Jess just chuckled and turned back to his girlfriend's mother, who was standing in the doorway, her mouth still wide open. "Did you want something?"_

_"What?" Lorelai said, coming out of her trance. "Oh, right, I was just going to tell Rory to meet me for dinner at the diner at six."_

_"Ok, I'll see you then," Rory said, still hiding her face from her mother. The moment she was out of the room, Rory dropped back onto the bed with a groan._

_"What?" Jess asked, lying down next to her._

_"My _mother_ just walked in on us. Does that not bother you?" she was staring at him, incredulous._

_"Nope."_

_"Jess..." she said, laughing lightly._

_"C'mere," was his way of response, as they went in for round two._

* * *

"Meet me for lunch?" Jess said on the phone, the first Saturday after school had started.

"Yeah, ok," she said, grinning. She hadn't gone in to the diner this morning because she wanted to get a head- start on her homework, but now that it was approaching noon, she supposed she could take a break for a while.

She approached the diner, and just as she was about to step through the door, something, or rather, someone, caught her eye. It was Tristan. She had been staying away from him as much as possible at school, and when she _did_ see him in the halls, she immediately ran in the other direction. So what was he doing here in Stars Hollow?

Jess saw her pause, and was immediately concered. "Rory!" he called out, jogging lightly over to her from his spot at the counter.

"Huh?" Rory snapped back out of her thoughts and turned to face her boyfriend. "Oh, sorry, just... look." she said, nodding her head in the direction of the blonde boy who was currently standing across the street near the entrance of Doose's.

Jess's eyes widened and then narrowed. "What is _he_ doing here?" he said through gritted teeth.

"How should _I _know?" she said.

"I really hate that guy, you have no idea," Jess said. Rory noticed how tense he was, and came to stand in front of him, directly in the way of his line of sight towards Tristan.

"Hey, I hate him, too. He punched you, and he drove us apart," Rory said. "Let's- just- ignore him. Maybe he's just... grocery shopping." her excuse was extremely feeble, and Jess smiled at the attempt.

"Ok," he said, giving her a peck on the lips and pulling away before she could deepen it.

"Mean," Rory said, glaring.

"Let's eat. _Then, _we can go upstairs," he said, raising his eyebrows.

"Pig," Rory said, slapping his shoulder lightly. After a few seconds, "Fine, let's go."

* * *

It was unnerving, really. Everywhere she went, she felt like Tristan was watching her. In the halls at Chilton, he always seemed to be standing at a locker nearby, or just around a corner she was turning. And she thought she saw him in Stars Hollow at least three times. She always ran in the opposite direction before she could get a closer look.

And today, Sunday, she had walked in to Weston's on two different occasions, planning on buying a cup of coffee, (Luke was out picking up something and Caesar never made it as good) and had immediately stepped out of the store again upon seeing the same blonde head sitting at the counter. Was he planning on staying there all day?

She had thought about telling Jess, but she really didn't see the point. If he ever actually found her and talked to her, she would let him know, but she didn't want to get him worked up over nothing. Just the mention of Tristan's name made Jess extremely angry, and Rory couldn't blame him. After all, it was Tristan's fault that Jess moved to New York, and that Rory and Jess almost ended their friendship. And he also punched him. For no reason. The thought made _Rory_ extremely angry as well. What was he _doing_ here? He already followed her at school, couldn't he give hr her town back?

Rory pulled out her cell phone and glanced at the time. She was supposed to meet Jess at the bridge in a few minutes. She sighed and started walking in that direction.

"Hey," Jess said when he heard her approach.

"Hi," she said, sitting down next to him and pecking him on the lips.

"What happened?" he asked immediately. Rory rolled her eyes. It was the end of September, and they had been dating for a little over a month. Their time as a couple had only heightened his ability to read her like an open book.

"Nothing," Rory said, trying to smile.

"No, it's not nothing. Something's been bothering you for a while now, and I want to know what it is."

"It doesn't matter, you don't have to worry about it," Rory said, trying to end the subject. Jess had no intention of letting that happen.

"Rory, it's worrying you, so that automatically makes _me_ worried. Please tell me what's up," Jess said, turning and facing her dead-on. Rory sighed.

"It's Tristan." Jess's eyes darkened.

"What did he do?" he said, a murderous tone coloring his voice.

"Nothing, he didn't do anything exactly," she said, trying to calm him down. "I just have a feeling that he's following me. At school, around town..." she trailed off.

"I'll kill him if he even tries talking to you after what he did," Jess was _mad, _more than Rory had ever seen.

"Whoa, Jess, relax, nothing happened," she said. Her hands rested on either side of his face and she stared straight at him, trying to calm him down.

"I know, I know. I _really _hate him," he said. Rory kissed him lightly, and he visibly relaxed.

"Hey, c'mere, you," he said, pulling her close to him, and kissing her again.

"Love you, Jess," Rory said into the kiss, wrapping her arms around his neck.

"Mmmm... Love you, too."

* * *

It was Monday afternoon, and Rory was in her room, doing her homework, waiting for Jess to come and take her out for dinner. The door bell rang, pulling her from her History notes and sending her catapulting from her chair and over to the front door. When she opened it, however, it wasn't Jess she saw waiting for her on the other side.

Tristan stumbled in, his breath reeking of alcohol, his hair tousled and his clothes ripped and dirty.

"Rory," he said, his voice slurred. "C'm back to me, I'ma idiot. Just dump Jack or whatever and c'm back," he said. He was talking in circles. Rory's eyes widened in surprise.

"I don't know what you think you're doing here, Tristan, but you need to get out. How did you get here?" she asked, trying to wrap her head around what was going on.

"Car."

"You shouldn't be _driving _like this, what is wrong with you? Tristan, get out of here," Rory said. She was scared to have him here, so drunk and out of control.

"I looove you," he said, stumbling forward and landing on her couch. He started smiling and then burst out laughing. "D'you here that? I love you, Mary!" he hiccuped and then ran forward, nearly tripping over his feet.

Rory backed away as he approached her, panicking. Now if only Jess would show up and help her...

A pair of lips were suddenly covering her own, and Tristan's tounge was trying to force its way in to her mouth. He smelled terrible, and was being so forceful, that Rory shuddered, trying to remember how she could have ever kissed him voluntairly.

"Mmmmm!!" she tried to yell but she was having trouble breathing. She pushed against his chest as hard as she could and she finally broke free from him. She barely had time to step back before a fist swung and connected squarely with Tristan's jaw.

"Jess!" she yelled.

"Get back, Rory," he said, his voice strangely calm.

"No, Jess, stop it, stop that. He's not worth it. Just let him go, he's drunk, he didn't know what he was doing," she cried out, grabbing his arm and trying to pull him away from Tristan, who, upon being punched, had seemed to come slightly out of the fog he was in.

"Let go of me, Rory," his tone of voice terrified her, and she quickly released his arm and went to the other side of the room, watching in horror the scene that was unfolding before her.

"I'm out," Tristan said, attempting to step past Jess and out the front door.

"What, at least when I punched _you_, I didn't run away afterwards, _and _I had a more than valid reason!" Something in his eyes must have made Tristan understand how dangerous Jess was at the moment, and without saying another word, he slipped out the door and stumbled out to his car.

The moment the car had revved and driven away, Rory spoke.

"Jess, thank God you came when you did, I was so-"

"Did you kiss him?" he interrupted, his voice harsh.

"What? Jess, _no_ I didn't kiss him. How could you think that?"

He was breathing shallow, and he made his way over to the couch and sat down, his head in his hands. "Is this the first time you've talked to him since you broke up?" he said, his voice still coming out with an uncontrolled edge.

"Yes," Rory said.

"Ok." A slight pause. "Are you Ok?"

"Yes."

Jess looked up and nodded. "Right. I have to go, now."

Rory rushed over and grabbed his arm before he could make it out the door.

"You don't get to walk away," she said, raising her voice. "Just, stay here, ok? Please?"

Jess stared at her and assessed her state of panic. After all the worry about him following her around- practically stalking her- and now what had just taken place, her eyes were red and blotched from crying and her hands were shaking. That was all the convincing Jess needed to pull her into his arms and hold on for dear life.

* * *

AN: Mwa ha ha... and guess what? That was nothing next to what's coming up. Please give me a quote or moment!


	10. Chapter 9: Duncan and Michael

Author's Note: Ummm... wow, I don't actually have anything to say here. Allllrighty, go ahead and start reading!

* * *

"We should like... press charges, or something," Jess said. It was the next day, and they were walking around town, going in a winding loop to the bridge.

"Press charges? Against what? He came, he kissed me, you punched him, he left," Rory said. She sighed. They'd been having the same conversation- with different variations- the whole afternoon.

"But what if- what if I hadn't come when I did? What if he _had _hurt you," his voice cracked, as if he was imagining the scenario. He shuddered.

"What?" Rory said.

They were at the bridge at this point. "Sometimes- it scares me, Rory."

"What scares you?" they sat down.

"How much I love you," he said, simply, gravely.

"How could that scare you?" she asked, unsure whether to be flattered or hurt.

He leaned over and kissed her forehead softly. "Because-" Pause. Kiss. "The thought of losing you," another kiss, on the cheek. "Kills me, And-" his lips, like feathers against her skin, "the thought of you being hurt," another kiss, right on the corner of her mouth... "terrifies me more than anything else." He put his hands on either side of her face and let his lips hover over hers.

Rory, her lips tingling in anticipation, felt salty tears slipping down her cheeks. He lifted his face quickly and kissed them away. Rory shuddered. He had no idea how sweet he was being.

Rory, impatient, placed her hands on the side of his face and kissed him, hard. He moaned, and Rory loved knowing she had that effect on him.

"God, I love you," Jess said, before deepening the kiss, effectively cutting off all chance of response from Rory.

* * *

"Duncan!" Tristan called out across the cafeteria.

"Dugrey, come with me," the deep voice of his 'friend' called back.

Tristan followed him out the back door to the cafeteria and into a back corner by the dumpsters.

"Ok, so we'll meet tonight, right? The same place?" Tristan said. He was ridiculously nervous for this night's stunt, and was made even more so my Duncan's apparent nonchalance about the whole thing.

"Yeah. Bowman bailed, so it's just you and me, bro."

"Wait, why is Bowman out?" Tristan said, trying not to show his obvious panic.

"Aw, he freaked out over nothing. We're not going to get caught," Duncan said.

Right. Everything was going to be fine.

That night, he met Duncan in a back alley near the school. "So... what now?" he asked.

"Well... I was thinking we knock over that huge house on 5th? I hear that the owners are out of town," Duncan responded, grinning evilly.

"Um... yeah, sure, cool."

In the distance, a dog barked. The sound made Tristan ridiculously jumpy, and rightfully so. A few seconds later, a gun shot rang loud and clear. Alarmed, Tristan turned to Duncan.

"What was that?!" he asked.

"_Duncan!_" a very angry voice sounded around the corner.

"Aw, crap," Duncan said, turning and running in the opposite direction. Tristan followed.

"Who is that guy?" he asked, drawing level to Duncan.

"He- well, I sort of- borrowed his car. Without asking." a slight pause. "And then crashed it."

"Idiot," Tristan mumbled. The gun sounded again, and suddenly, Tristan was pinned against the wall of the alley, someone holding his arms behind him.

"Whoa, whoa, let me go!" he called out, trying not to let hysteria creep into his voice.

"Give us the money, Duncan, or I'll shoot your friend," the guy with the gun swiveled it to point directly at Tristan's head, and the one holding him captive tightened his grip.

"Michael, put the gun down. I'll get you the money," Duncan said, and Tristan marvelled at how calm he was being about this whole ordeal. Then again, he wasn't the one with a gun shoved in his face.

"Next week, or it's over." And with that, the two men were gone.

Tristan gawked. "Holy _sh..._

* * *

"What are you thinking about?" Rory asked Jess as they ate dinner at Luke's. Their conversation had fallen into a comfortable lull, but Jess looked like he was thinking about something very intently, and she became curious.

"You," he responded. Rory waited for him to say more, because that obviously wasn't all. "And... this thing with Tristan."

"Jess," Rory groaned. "Not that again. I told you to stop worrying about it!" It was a week since the incident, and Jess still refused to drop it. Rory thought it would be best to not tell him that Tristan was still following her around at school, and that yesterday she had seen him in Doose's Market.

"I can't just stop worrying about it! What if he tries to kiss you again?" he said, grimacing at the thought.

"Well, then I give you permission to punch him again. And this time I won't hold you back when you want to continue," she said, smiling. She really had no idea if Tristan would attempt coming near her again, but she didn't want to admit to Jess how scared she was of the possibility.

"I appreciate that," Jess said. "Let's get out of here."

"Yeah," she said, standing up. Jess took her hand as the exited the diner and Rory smiled at the familiarity of the feeling. Things with Jess were so... natural and free-flowing, she couldn't begin to fathom why they had waited so long to get together.

They made their way back to Rory's house where they curled up on the couch and put in a movie.

"Rory?" Jess asked after a few minutes of silence.

"Yeah?"

"You'll- tell me, if he talks to you again, right?" Jess said. Rory shifted slightly on the couch so they were face-to-face.

"Of course I will," she said, kissing him lightly. A slight amount of guilt nestled its way into her stomach. She knew that what he _meant_ was to tell him if anything else happened with Tristan, and that would include seeing him around town. But she couldn't tell him that. She didn't want to show him how weak she was.

"Good," he said, tucking her head underneath his chin and turning back to the movie.

* * *

"Hey, Mary."

Rory froze. Was he seriously going to talk to her now? It was the middle of October and Tristan had all but completely faded out of her mind. She still noticed him following her at school, but he hadn't been in Stars Hollow recently at all. Things with Jess were going great: the Tristan topic hadn't come up at all this past week, and they were both moving on. Figures he had to choose this particular moment to swoop in and shatter the peace that they had built.

"Mary, wait up," Tristan continued as Rory walked down the hall way away from her.

"Leave me alone, Tristan."

"Hold up," he said, grabbing her arm. Rory grimaced and pulled it away from him.

"Don't you _dare_ touch me," she said, trying not to raise her voice. The last thing she needed was an audience.

"Aw, come on."

"No, Tristan. Stay away from me."

"You, know, Mare, I remember what happened! Between you and me? The other night? I want you to know that I meant what I said," he said. Rory was a considerable distance from him now, and he had raised his voice to tell this to her. No sooner has Rory turned the corner to escape him did Paris grab her arm and drag her into an empty class room.

"What happened between you and Tristan?" she demanded.

"He came to my house drunk, and then told me he loved me, kissed me, Jess punched him, and he left," she said quickly, trying to escape from Paris's questioning. It was a lost cause.

"He _did_?" Paris exclaimed. "Wow, that's just... so like him. Sorry you have to deal with that, Gilmore." she said. Rory rolled her eyes. She certainly didn't _sound _very sorry.

"Right. Ok, Paris, I should get to class."

* * *

"How was school?" Jess asked later that day.

"Fine. Well, actually..." Rory hesitated.

"What?" Jess asked. He stopped wiping down the counter at the diner and immediately focused all of his attention on her.

"Tristan talked to me today," Rory said meekly. Jess's eyes narrowed.

"What did he say?" he managed to choke out.

"He told me that he remembered what had happened from before, and that he meant what he said."

"What did he say?" Jess said, confusion becoming the dominant expression on his face, after anger. Rory closed her eyes in defeat. She hadn't told him the _full _account of what had happened that night.

"He told me that he loved me, but I just chalked it up to him being drunk," Rory started. "But he remembered, and he said he meant it. What if he _does?_" She said, the thought just occuring to her.

Jess hesitated. "When you were together, did you ever... tell him..." he trailed off.

"No," she said quickly, wanting the look of hurt gracing his features to disappear. She quickly stepped to the other side of the counter, placing her hands on either side of his face. "No. I never loved him, and I never will. _You_ are the only person I've ever said that to. Outside of family," she added as an afterthought, although she was fairly certain Jess knew what she meant.

"Good," he said, smiling slightly and kissing her.

Suddenly, Rory thought of something. "What about you?" she said.

Jess knew what she meant immediately, but he hoped he was wrong. "What about me?" he asked.

"Shane. Did you ever tell her you-"

"Definetely not," he quickly interrupted her. Rory nodded, satisfied.

* * *

"Tristan!" a voice rang out, loud and clear across the hall. It was Duncan, coming toward him quickly.

Tristan sighed and closed his eyes, preparing for the onslaught. "What?" he said, his voice harsher than intended.

"What's with you? Why'd you run off like that?" Tristan raised his eyebrows. He couldn't seriously be asking him that. Since the gun incident, Tristan had been avoiding Duncan. It had been a few weeks since it had happened, and so far he had been successful. Sighing, he responded to his friend, or whatever he was.

"I had a gun pointed at my head," he said, his voice monotone.

"Whatever," was Duncan's response.

"What_ever?!_" Tristan said, his voice rising slightly. "I could have _died!_"

"Jeez, do you have to say it so loud?" Duncan said. "It doesn't matter, anyways. You can go ahead and get all scared over nothing. If you don't show up, I just get more of the take. It's fine with me."

"Fine. I'm out."

* * *

"Jess? Rory? You in there?" Luke said, knocking on the door of the appartment.

They pulled apart quickly, breathing heavily.

"Hey, looks like your uncle is a little smarter than my mother. She actually knocked first," Rory said, giggling.

Jess smirked. "Come in, Luke."

He opened the door and saw his nephew and his nephew's girlfriend on the couch, too close for comfort in his personal opinion. He didn't like thinking about what they were probably doing when he knocked on the door.

"Hey, guys. Just wondering if you wanted some food, Lorelai's downstairs," he said.

"Right, we'll be down in a few," Jess said, and Luke closed the door.

"Hey, guess what tomorrow is?" Rory said, trying to act like it wasn't a big deal.

"What?" Jess said. He, of course, knew _exactly_ what tomorrow was, but he liked messing with Rory's mind.

"It's... you don't know?" Rory said, shocked and a little hurt.

"What, I don't know that tomorrow's Friday? I don't know that tomorrow is the 29th of October? I don't know that tomorrow is... oh, let's say... our two-month anniversary?" he said, smirking.

"You remembered?" Rory said, grinning.

"Well, how am I supposed to forget the best day of my life?" Jess said. He stated it like a joke, but they both knew he was being serious.

"Come here," Rory said, pulling him closer on the couch.

"What about dinner?" Jess said.

"My mom can wait," she said, and she kissed him.

* * *

Author's Note: This is a little shorter than I would have liked it to be, but I'm letting you know right now that something HUGE is going to happen in the next chapter. I'm sorry for the limited amount of Jess/Rory in there, I know you probably don't care about Tristan's problems in the least. But in order for a future event in the story to make sense, I needed to put that in there. So, yeah. Please review, or I'll withhold the next chapter! Mwahahahahahahahahaha!!


	11. Chapter 10: Serious Consequences

Author's Note:

For Lynn specifically: Just to clear it up, he said the thing about "he knew what she was talking about but he hoped she was wrong..." yeah. He said that because he hoped that Rory didn't actually believe that he had loved Shane. And the beginning? _So_ out of character. but he's pretty much been OOC the whole story, hasn't he? I'm really bad at writing Jess. And Rory, for that matter. Actually, Lorelai is the only person I'm good at writing. I wrote a Rogan story once that had a lot of her in it. But you probably wouldn't want to read that if you're in to Lit. Ok, I should stop rambling now.

Please review!

* * *

_He was running, but he knew he was too late. She was gone. Pain ripped through him, blurring his senses, making him drop to his knees in agony. He felt like someone was stabbing into his heart with a million knives. Then, a gun shot. His eyes snapped open. She was close. But he was helpless. He could do nothing but listen as the end came. Her scream bore through him, the freshness and pain of it making him gasp. And then, just as soon as it had started, it stopped. He heard her whimper, her dying breath. It was ten times worse than her screams. Then, all was still._

Jess's eyes snapped open and he sat up quickly. His entire body was covered in a cold sweat and he was gasping, his heart rate irregular.

He let himself calm down and he had the sudden urge to call Rory, just to hear her voice. He was being unreasonable, he knew she was fine. But he had to call, just to be sure she was ok.

The ringing of the phone woke Rory. She glanced at the clock. 2:00am. Stumbling out of bed, she groped through the darkness of her house and reached the phone, answering it with a sleepy "'lo?"

"Rory?" Jess said.

"Jess? Are you ok? It's early- sleepy..." she said.

"I'm- sorry, I just... had a dream."

Rory wrinkled her eyebrows in confusion, waiting for him to elaborate. When he didn't, she finally said "A dream?"

"Yeah. A bad dream," he said, hesitantly.

"Oh," Rory said, confused. "Are you- ok?"

Jess sighed. "Yeah, sorry it's stupid. I just- I dreamt that you- It doesn't matter, never mind."

"Jess, you woke me up. You have to tell me what happened," Rory said.

"Fine. I dreamt- that you- were- that I was running- and you were shot. You- were dead. I had to-" Jess stopped, his breathing heavy.

"Jess... I'm ok, I'm right here," Rory said, slightly bewildered. Jess had dreamt that she had been shot?

"I know, I'm sorry I called you so late. I'll let you go back to sleep now," he said.

"No, I'm wide awake now, stay on the phone with me," Rory said, shifting in bed to make herself more comfortable.

"Happy two month anniversary, Rory," Jess said.

"Love you, Jess," she responded.

* * *

"Do you think it's crazy that I called you?" he asked, at 10:00am when Rory arrived at the diner.

"No, I think it's incredibly sweet," Rory said, kissing him chastely.

"Huh. Interesting. You think it's sweet that I woke you up in the middle of the night?"

"No. I think it's sweet that you had a bad dream so you called me to make sure I was ok," Rory said, rolling her eyes and placing her head against his chest.

"I'll keep that in mind."

"Shut up," Rory said, slapping him lightly on the shoulder.

"So. Come with me," he said, pulling Rory out the door before she could protest.

"Where are we going? I wanted coffee!" Rory screeched, fighting against his embrace.

"Coffee can wait. I want to give you something," Jess said. They arrived at the bridge, where Rory figured they were headed.

"Really?" Rory said, smiling. "Because I have something to give you, too. It's in my coat pocket at this moment."

"I'm terrible at this romantic crap, you know," Jess said.

"Well, let me tell you, _that_ wasn't very romantic," Rory said, smiling. "However, you have been known to be incredibly sweet, on occasion."

"Gee, thanks," he said, rolling his eyes and pulling out a black velvet box.

Rory's eyes widened. "What did you do?" she said, her voice almost scolding.

"Open it," Jess said, smirking.

"Jess, you really didn't have to do this," Rory said, hesitantly taking the package from his hand. She snapped the lid open and her eyes got even bigger.

"You like it?" Jess said, cockily, sure of Rory's answer.

"Jess... I _love_ it, you couldn't have chosen more perfectly," Rory breathed, staring at the necklace in the case. "But... this looks... expensive..." she trailed off, closely eyeing the diamond on the end of the chain. It looked suspiciously real.

"Don't worry about it," Jess said, shrugging. Rory smiled, and handing it to him, she commanded:

"Put it on, please."

Once the necklace was securely in place, Rory turned, smiling to him. "Getting me that necklace was _definetely _romantic."

"Huh," he responded, before giving her a deep and satisfying kiss.

"Ok, my turn," Rory said, practically jumping up and down in excitement.

"Wow, I've never seen you this phsyked to give someone a gift before," he said, his eyebrows raised in real interest.

"Well, I got you the most amazing gift _ever_. After this necklace, of course," she said. smiling and fingering it.

"Wow, you've caught my interest," he said.

"Here," Rory said, pulling out a rectangular object and handing it over.

"A book?" he said, slowly breaking the tape on the wrapping paper and carefully taking it off, trying not to rip it.

"Are you being slow just to annoy me?" Rory asked, accusingly.

"Possib...ly..." he said, trailing off when he saw what he was looking at.

"The Old Man and the Sea?" he said, turning to her. "It looks old."

"First edition," she said, proudly. Jess's eyes popped.

"Are you serious?" he said, looking down at the book with new-found respect. "This is- how did you find this?"

"My grandfather has a huge collection of books like these. When I mentioned your love of Hemmingway," she paused to roll her eyes at his obsession with the most boring author of all time in her opinion, "he told me to take anything I wanted."

"Wow, Rory, thank you so much, this is... incredible..." he was running his hands over the worn binding, feeling it's weight. Slowly, he cracked the cover, and his eyes widened again.

"What's- this-" he said, haltingly, refusing to believe it.

"Oh, did I forget to mention it's a signed copy?" Rory said off-handedly.

Jess's breathing hitched. "Oh, my God. You got me a first edition signed copy of The Old Man and the Sea. Ok, this is the most amazing gift ever. _Way_ more so than that necklace," he said, setting it down on top of the wrapping paper so it didn't get dirty, and kissing her.

Rory made a sound of protest when he tried to pull away, and instead deepened the kiss, throwing her arms around him. Jess smiled at the action.

* * *

The doorbell rang, and Rory put down her book to answer it, fingering her necklace. She smiled, thinking about Jess and how amazing he was. She then proceeded to roll her eyes at herself for thinking such sickly-sweet thoughts. The door opened, and all thoughts of any sweet nature flew right out of her head.

"Tristan?!" she said. What could he be doing here?

"Mary, let me talk to you," he said, dead serious. He was swaying slightly, and he was very pale, almost green. He was drunk again, maybe not as much as he had been the last time, but still enough to make her nervous.

"No, Tristan, I don't want to-" he grabbed her wrist and dragged her out the front door. "What are you doing?!" she screeched, panicked."

"Shut up, Mare. Don't make me do something we're both going to regret," Tristan said, opening the passenger side of his car and roughly shoving her in. He raced around to the other side of the car before Rory could even process what was happening. The next thing she knew, they were speeding down the road.

"Tristan, let me _out_ of this car," she demanded. She had meant to make her voice threatening, but she was shaking so hard that her comment came out more hysterical than anything else.

"No. I'm going to talk to you about something," he said, calmly.

She pulled out her cell phone, to call the police, or Jess, or her mom, she wasn't quite sure, but Tristan, seeing the movement, snatched it out of her hand.

* * *

In the middle of the dinner rush, in the middle of pouring a glass of water at the diner, Jess felt a chill go through him. He paused slightly, and, trying to ignore the feeling, went back to serving customers. Wasn't Rory supposed to meet him? He glanced at his watch. She wasn't supposed to be here for another ten minutes. He relaxed, or at least tried to convince himself to relax, but he couldn't help but feel that something wasn't right.

* * *

They had been driving for 45 minutes, when Rory's cell phone rang. Tears streaming down her face and her whole body shaking with nerves, she managed to catch a glimpse of the caller-ID before Tristan snapped open the phone. Jess.

"Rory's not available, don't call again," was all he said before snapping it back closed. She felt relieved at this, because she knew that Jess would figure it out.

"Where are we going?" she managed in a shaky voice.

"Here," he said, pulling over quite suddenly.

"What's going on?" she asked, clearly hysterical.

"I needed a place to talk to you, where we wouldn't be inturupted," Tristan said seriously.

And despite the dangerous situation she was in, Rory couldn't help but roll her eyes and say sarcastically, "So you felt the need to practically kidnap me and take me all the way to Hartford?"

Tristan looked uncomfortable. "Yeah..."

* * *

"Dammit," Jess said, closing his phone angrily. That was Tristan on the other end, he'd bet anything. After waiting twenty minutes for Rory to show up, the gut feeling that something was wrong didn't go away. In fact, it got worse. So, he called everyone he could think of, and he went over to Rory's house. She was nowhere. Panicked, he started towards Hartford. He thought that if he talked to Rory's grandparents, maybe they could get the police searching.

And now, he knew who she was with, if not where she was, and it certainly didn't make him feel any better.

* * *

She heard the gunshot, and she screamed.

Tristan looked freaked as well, and he grabbed Rory's arm and turned her down a back-alley, running as fast as he could.

"Tristan!" a voice called. He turned. How did this guy know his name?

"M-Michael?" he said, shocked. What was the crazy guy that Duncan knew doing here?

"I need the money to fix my car," he said.

"What?" Tristan exclaimed. "I had nothing to _do_ with that! It was all Duncan! Why are you-" his voice cracked in fear.

"Duncan's dead," Michael exclaimed. "And she's dead, too, if you don't agree to give me the money."

Rory felt like she had stepped into a really bad horror movie, as a second man stepped out of the shadows and held her arms behind her. Michael's gun was pointed straight at her head. In the inside, she felt herself on the verge of panicked tears, but she tried to keep herself composed as she said,

"Listen, um, Michael, was it? I would really appreciate if you would let me go?" she said meekly.

"Shut up. Tristan, can you get us the money?" Michael said, focused on Tristan, but keeping the gun focused on Rory.

Tristan thought through everything. His _family_ sure had the money, but he couldn't exaclty get ahold of any of it without his parents knowing. And Duncan was dead?! That was insane. He couldn't even summon up some remorse over this piece of news, and that made him sick. He couldn't think. Rory's life was in danger. What did that mean to him?

"Ten... Nine..." Michael began threateningly.

* * *

Whatever kind of fate brought it about, Jess was driving by the alley when the first gun shot sounded. He immediately pulled over, and began running toward the where the noise had come from. He heard Rory's scream, and his mind suddenly transported back to the dream. But he wouldn't let this situation have the same outcome. He wouldn't let her get hurt.

Voices sounded. He couldn't hear anything distinct, but he heard Rory say something, and he cringed, hearing the raw terror lacing her words. Then came the voice of a stranger, talking to someone. He heard the name Tristan.

There was a silence. Suddenly, as he rounded the corner, he saw four peope just ahead. Tristan, and a man with a gun. And... Rory. Her arms pinned behind her by the forth man. No...

"Ten... Nine..." he heard the stranger count down.

Jess sanpped out of his trance and quickly pulled out his cell phone, calling 911. He informed the police in a whisper of his location, and then snapped the phone shut, zooming back in to what was happening.

"Eight... Seven..." the voice continued. "I'm serious about this, Tristan. You don't give us the money, your little girlfriend dies."

Jess was beyond freaked out at this point. _Come on, Tristan... say something..._ he was rooting for Tristan, of all people.

"Six... Five... Four... Three..." Jess saw his finger twitch on the trigger of the gun, and something snapped inside of him. Breaking away from his spot in the shadows behind a dumpster, he ran at the man with the gun at full-speed.

"Two... One!" Jess lunged, pushing Michael over, just as the gun shot sounded through the alley. The man that was with Michael ran for his life, and Tristan managed to kick the gun out of Michael's hand before he could recover from Jess's attack. Police sirens sounded in the distance, but Jess heard none of it. Everything seemed to move slowly, and he could heart beat pounding in his head as he scanned the alley for Rory.

"_No!_" he yelled, when he saw her, lying still, too still, with crimson liquid soaking through her shirt. "Rory!"

He scrambled over to her, and not caring that he was staining his own clothes with her blood, he put her head into his lap, and brushed through her hair with his fingers, trembling. "Don't- do this, please," he managed to get out through his sobs. "Rory I can't- God, don't you _dare _leave me. Please, don't do this to me, I can't live without you. Rory? God, please, please wake up."

She stirred slightly. His breath hitched and he stared down at her. She groaned and looked up at him. "Jess, what happened?"

* * *

Author's Note: Do you hate me? Well too bad. I want a LOT of reviews on this. See if you can beat your record, which is 20 for the first chapter. No reviewing twice, if you're an annonymous reviewer. That's cheating. I'll update when I'm satisfied with the number of reviews!


	12. Chapter 11: Hospital Time

Author's Note: Ok, here's the chapter! Put in your fav. moment please! Oh, and I'm warning you: I know nothing about doctors and hospitals, so I just made up all the medical stuff in here.

**PLEASE READ EVERYONE, especially Iluvjess: Thanks for taking the time to read my story. I'd like to reassure you that I'm not telling people that they need to put in a fav. moment. I'm grateful that people are even taking the time to read this. My author's notes are not an order to anyone. In case it's not clear, I've been updating with the same frequency no matter how many reviews I get. But I think it's more interesting for me _and _my readers to put something specific in the reviews. It's not by any means something I'm trying to force anyone to do. I am so amazed by the responses I've been getting, and I just love the reviews. _Any_ type of review is _more _than welcome. Thanks for reading, I hope you continue!**

* * *

Jess couldn't make himself concentrate on anything. Sitting in a plastic hospital chair waiting to hear the fate of the love of his life was not something Jess thought he would be doing tonight. Lorelai and Luke were on their way. They had called him the moment the hospital had contacted Lorelai, and Jess had felt so stupid for not calling her straight away. She had been worried that her daughter was gone, and searching frantically. With the news of her being shot, Lorelai had run straight to Luke and gone with him to the hospital in Hartford.

He couldn't get his hands to stop shaking. His shirt was stained with blood- _her_ blood, but he couldn't bring himself to care about it. The scene in the alley kept on re-playing itself in his head. She had been awake for only a few minutes, and then had started to breath slower, slipping into unconsciousness, as much as Jess begged her to stay with him.

The ambulance had shown up with the police, and Rory was immediately taken to the hospital. Jess insisted on riding with her. He had been aware briefly of the fact that Michael was being hand-cuffed, and Tristan was carried away in a seperate police car, probably to make a Witness Statement. But after that, he had only enough strength to focus on Rory.

"Jess?!" Luke's voice rang out, breaking Jess from his thoughts. He stood up, trying to brush away the tears that had been falling, unchecked, since he had arrived.

"Hey," he said, his voice rough from disuse and the crying.

"Where is she? Is she ok?" Lorelai cut in, tired of the unnecessary greetings.

"They won't tell me anything because I'm not related," Jess said, sighing and rubbing a tired hand across his face. Without another word, Lorelai marched off toward the desk.

Luke and Jess sat down again, and Luke turned toward his nephew, concerned.

"She'll be fine, Jess. Rory's strong," he said, trying to be comforting.

"What if she's _not_ ok, Luke? What if I lose her?" his voice cracked pathetically and Luke's heart went out to him.

Lorelai returned to them, and both pairs of eyes went to her face, searching her expression for any hint of what was going on.

She just sighed and shook her head. "No news yet, they're still running tests. She was unconscious when they brought her in, but that could just be an effect of the blood-loss, so we don't specifically know what's going on, just yet." Her voice was kept carefully professional, but Luke and Jess both saw the pain burning just behind the surface.

"Come here," Luke said, opening up his arms and pulling her down onto his lap. Despite the horrific situation they were all in, Jess smiled at the two of them together, wondering if they'd ever be a couple.

* * *

"Are you the family of Rory Gilmore?" A doctor's voice sounded. The five people present immediately jumped to their feet. Emily and Richard Gilmore had arrived shortly after Lorelai and Luke.

"Yes," Luke said. He seemed to be the only one capable of speech at this point, though they all looked pretty freaked out. Jess's stomach clenched in fear as he awaited the doctor's next words.

"I have... some good news, and some bad news," he said reluctantly. Jess vaguely felt himself sympathize with him. He wondered what kind of bad tidings he had had to bring to families on a day-to-day basis, just as part of his job. But the most dominant emotion was fear, of course. Fear for losing the most important thing in his life.

"Bad news first," Luke managed to get out. He squeezed Lorelai's hand in reassurance, and Jess observed that Mr. and Mrs. Gilmore were also holding hands. This, of course, only reminded him further of why he couldn't be holding hands with Rory at this particular moment, and his heart contracted painfully.

"Rory," the doctor continued, "is in a coma right now. However," he rushed on, upon seeing the panic-stricken faces in front of him, "Me and the rest of our team think that it is not a heavy one, and that right now, she had a very good chance of fully recovering. The longer she remains in her current state, the less certain of that we will be."

No one moved, no one spoke. Everyone was shocked. A coma? That was the kind of thing that happened to people in movies, or people on the News. Not to Rory. Not to someone that they all knew and loved.

Luke, once again, played the part of spokes person for the group. "So... I mean... I know she can't exactly hear us right now, but do you think that we... could visit her?"

The doctor replied in the affirmative, and told them that Rory had been moved into a more comfortable private room, after being reassured by the elder Gilmores that money was not an issue.

"Thanks," Lorelai replied, before taking Luke by the hand and dragging him after her, towards her room, Number 159. Jess had a feeling he would be getting quite used to this particular number.

* * *

Shakily, he entered the door to her room. After Lorelai and Luke had spent some time with her, he felt like he should probably go in and see her.

Glancing in, he cringed, seeing her, so frail, tied up to all sorts of tubes and wires. His breathing was shaky and he felt his stomach clench.

"Rory..." he whispered, approaching her timidly and sitting in the chair provided for visitors right by her bed.

"Hey," he started softly, not sure what to say to an unconscious person, especially an unconscious person that he was in love with. "God, this is the most cliche thing in the world, you know that? I really need a favor from you, Rory. You _need_ to wake up, do you understand that?" he said, pausing to take a shallow breath. "Please. You need to be stronger than this... you can- I know you can fight this."

He gave up on talking and grabbed her hand between both of his, kissing it lightly. "I love you. Fight this, Rory. Please don't leave me."

He sat with her for about 45 minutes, before it became too much, and he went back into the waiting room.

* * *

In the past two weeks, they had fallen into quite a simple routine. Not that it was a pleasureable one, by any means, but Jess was rather used to it. He spent the majority of every day in the hospital, as well as Lorelai. Luke came in for an hour or two every day, and the Gilmores made an appearance every other day to check on their beloved granddaughter and hassel the nurses to make sure that every possible comfort was being made for Rory and for the others around her. Christopher had yet to make an appearance, but Lorelai seemed to prefer it that way.

Jess was skipping school, but having his work emailed to him by Zach and Brian each night, so he wouldn't fall too much behind. He wouldn't have bothered with it, but he couldn't sleep at night, and reading let his mind wander too much, thinking about Rory.

Of course, doing homework also reminded him of her, and that, of course, tortured him to no end.

Luke had at one point almost asked him if he thought he was ready to go back to school, but he knew what his answer would be. Jess wouldn't leave Rory's side, no matter how long she was out.

All five of Rory's permanant support system were in the waiting room when the doctor assigned to Rory came out of her room and walked toward them.

"Dr. Wallace, anything new?" Lorelai asked eagerly.

"Actually, yes," Dr. Wallace began, and all five pairs of eyes snapped up to watch his face attentively. "She isn't awake yet, but we are picking up more and more thought activity. We think she is beginning to be aware of her surroundings, only slightly. We observed that when we raised our voices substantially, her heart rate spead up."

Jess's head was swimming. He didn't know what it meant, but he could tell it was a step in the right direction.

"Can I- can I see her?" Jess asked.

"Yes, you may," Dr. Wallace responded. Jess looked at Lorelai, asking for permission to go first. Lorelai was reluctant, but nodded and allowed him access to Rory's room.

"Rory?" Jess said, stepping up to the bed. "Hey, it's me again. The doctors say you're- doing better." He sighed, and tucked a strand of hair behind her ear. "They say you can hear things. I don't know if you can hear this or not, but I need you to know that you have a lot of people worried about you. You need to wake up, soon Rory. _Please_."

He listened to her breath, the steady, even inhales and exhales that kept him sane. As long as she was breathing, he could breath. As long as she was alive, he could live.

His thoughts were interrupted by the entrance of Richard Gilmore to the room.

Jess got up as if to go, but Mr. Gilmore put up a hand. "Stay, please. I know she would want you in here, with her."

Jess stared at him with disbelief, but sat down again, any way.

"So. You are dating my granddaughter, I understand," he said as a way of striking up conversation.

Jess paled. He was going to have a- talk- with Rory's grandfather. Lovely. Richard noticed his reaction, and chuckled lightly. "No need to be concerned, son. I wanted to tell you that I'm alright with this. Lorelai has told me how much she cares for you, and it's obvious that you care a great deal about her, too, or you wouldn't be here so often."

Jess nodded. "She's- everything to me," he admitted.

Richard smiled. "You are a Junior in High School, as well?" he asked.

Jess answerd in the affirmative.

"If you don't mind me asking, young man, do you think what the two of you have is serious?" Richard asked.

Jess squinted, confused. "What- do you mean?"

"Do you think it will last?" he clarified.

Jess nodded furiously. "I have no intentions of letting her go."

Richard smiled approvingly at this response.

* * *

At first, it wasn't clear, what she was hearing. It was more like a constant buzz. But being the logical mind that she was, she focused on one thing at a time. What was her name? Rory. Her last name? Gilmore. The voices in the room? This one was harder. There was two people, having a conversation. Both male, by the sound of it. It was her grandfather, and... Jess! Suddenly, the full extent of what had happened rushed upon her, and she had to force herself to calm down. She focused on the voices, which were becoming clearer and clearer.

"If you don't mind me asking, young man, do you think what the two of you have is serious?" Rory heard her grandfather say.

There was a pause, and Rory, irrationally, feared for Jess's answer. She heard his voice. "What- do you mean?"

"Do you think it will last?" was Richard's immediate response.

Rory's heart swelled when she heard him respond, "I have no intentions of letting her go."

"Look," Richard said.

Jess turned to look at Rory, frightened that something might have happened. He was met with the welcome sight of her hand moving, ever-so-slightly.

"Oh, my God," he muttered, running to her side and taking her hand in his. "Rory? Baby? Can you hear me? Oh, God, please open your eyes." And then, she did.

"Jess?" her voice was hoarse and weak, but it was the most welcome sound Jess had heard in a long time.

"Rory..." he breathed, shaking his head in utter amazement. He turned around and noticed that Richard had left, probably to get the others, along with a doctor.

"Jess, tell me the truth, how long have I been out?" Rory said, worry filling her eyes.

Jess's eyes closed, and he squeezed her hand tighter. "Two weeks," he responded, and Rory let out a gust of air, surprised.

"Wow. Ok, and... What- happened?" she said. And Jess knew exactly what she meant by the question.

"They caught Michael, and their still looking for his partner. Tristan... they had him write a witness statement, and he got six weeks in Juvenile Hall for basically kidnapping you, but he called the hospital to see if you were ok. He wanted to tell you that he had a change of heart. He's going to leave you alone now."

Rory nodded, satisfied with his answer.

"Rory?!" The voice of a frantic mother sounded from the doorway, and Lorelai rushed in. Jess reluctantly dropped her hand, and let Lorelai and Rory reunite.

* * *

Upon the news that she was awake, Emily and Luke entered the room with Richard. Jess and Lorelai remained, and Lane made an appearance, along with Sookie, Jackson, Zach, Brian, and many of the other townsfolk.

With Jess on one side and her mother on the other, Rory truly felt that everything was going to be alright, despite recent events.

And for now, that was all she could ask for.

* * *

AN: Don't worry, It's not over! Please Please Please Please Review!!


	13. Chapter 12: The Elder Gilmores

Author's Note: Ok, going through a brief period of writer's block right now, and this is what it came out as. Hopefully a new plot twist will come to me soon. Any suggestions?

**W O W. I am pretty stupid. Just wanted to clarify some time/age issues for anyone who is confused. Because I'm confused. So, Rory's b-day is October 8th. And in the first Chapter I said it was just after her 16th birthday. So now she's 17. Because if I'm thinking correctly, their two month anniversary was October 29th. So that means that we are just going to pretend that when they were still friends, their sophomore year went by _really_ quickly. Ha. So just pretend there was more time in between each of the chapters. And now it's nearing the end of November. Ok. I'm continuing. Remeber, Rory and Jess are both 17 now.**

Review, please and thank you!

* * *

"Careful, Rory. Don't strain yourself," Jess said, gripping her hand tightly as she took a tentative step toward the door of her room.

"I'm _fine,_ Jess," Rory snapped back. Jess's eyes widened.

"Jeez," he said, slightly hurt.

"Sorry," Rory said, sighing. "It's just that everyone is fawning over me, and I just want to be trusted to do something on my own."

Jess nodded. "We aren't trying to control you. You've only been awake for three days, and..." Jess said, trailing off.

"What?" Rory said, grabbing his arm lightly to get his attention.

"I can't lose you, ok?" Jess said, his voice harsh. "I couldn't handle it if anything happened to you. Not again. It almost killed me the first time."

Rory let out a shaky breath. "Jess... I'm ok, I'm fine. Nothing's going to happen."

"Yeah, because I'm not going to let it," Jess said determinedly.

Rory rolled her eyes, but didn't protest as he led her slowly and steadily out the doorway.

* * *

She never realized how much she really loved the town of Stars Hollow before. After all the scary things that had been going on, she was glad to be back in the quaint and quirky town again.

Three weeks. That was how long she had spent in the hospital. Two of them unconscious, and one recovering. She was so behind on school work. Paris had E-mailed her all of her assignments, so in the week that she was awake but stuck on bedrest with short walks in between, she had been working her butt off to catch up.

Jess had tried to convince her that she was stressing too hard, and that her teachers would all understand that her work was late, due to the fact that she had been in a near fatal accident.

Of course, this did absolutely nothing.

Right at this moment, however, life seemed to be going good for Rory. She hoped that things would calm down a bit after all the drama she had been through.

"Rory, meet me at Luke's," her mom said to her as they approached the town center. Rory nodded, and smiled gratefully at her mother for understanding that Jess and Rory needed to be alone right now.

At the hospital, their time together had been rushed, and longer visiting periods were always interrupted by Lorelai, Luke, or Richard and Emily. They both felt their feet automatically take them to the one spot that they knew they would never be interrupted.

Sitting down on the old and slightly rotting wood of the bridge made Rory break in to a huge grin.

Jess smiled in response, and sat down next to her. He loved to see her happy. "What?" he said, when her infectious grin grew in size.

"Nothing... I just really missed this place," Rory said, shrugging.

"The bridge specifically, or Stars Hollow?" he questioned, slinging an arm around her shoulder.

"Both. It's nice, like this. Everything is so calm, and peaceful..." she sighed and kissed Jess's shoulder lightly. Jess let the familiar shudder go through him at her casual caress. He didn't think she would ever realize what she did to him.

"Hey, come here," he said, pulling her face up to his hungrily and kissing her feverently.

Rory responded eagerly, and the two stayed like that before Rory's injury pulled them both down to earth. When she raised her arm to put it around his neck, she winced, and Jess reluctantly broke away.

"What is it, your shoulder?" he asked, concerned.

"Yeah, but I'm fine. It's so easy to forget I was even shot, because it doesn't hurt, most of the time. Just when I move it wrong. But I suppose I was lucky. The doctors said that it could have been so much worse. Just two inches to the left and I probably wouldn't have made it. So I guess it was just..." she trailed off, when she saw that Jess's face was contorted in pain, and his breathing labored. "What?" she said, panicked.

"Can you _please _not talk about that?" he said weakly. Rory tilted her head to the side, indicating that she didn't understand.

"How... close it was. How it could have been all over if I hadn't come when I did, if I had hesitated just a second longer," he said. "It would have been all my fault if-"

"Whoa, now don't you dare go there, mister," Rory said, angrily interrupting him. Jess's mouth opnened in shock.

Rory continued. "In no way was anything that happened to me your fault. In fact, if it weren't for you, I'd be dead right now," Jess flinched at her words, and Rory calmed down a bit. "You _saved_ me, Jess. You're my hero. You are_ amazing_."

Jess smiled and shrugged, letting her praise wash over him, basking in it. He wasn't going to admit how much he liked her telling him this.

"Whatever. I know you would have done the same for me," he said. "Though I would rather you just stay somewhere safe, and let me take it, if I'm ever in a similar situation."

Rory snorted. "I doubt you'll ever be in a similar situation. And if you are, I'll be doing everything I can to save you."

"I know you will," Jess said, his voice impossibly tender and sweet.

* * *

"Bad news, Gilmore," Lorelai said to her only daughter after Friday night dinner. It was November 30th, and the cold air whipped around Rory's bare shoulders. She shuddered, walking faster toward their car.

Once inside, she responded to her mother. "What is it, other Gilmore?" Lorelai started the engine.

"Hey, when did _I_ become the other Gilmore? _You_ should be the other Gilmore, you're the young one." Rory rolled her eyes at her mother's immaturity and responded:

"Fine, I'm the other Gilmore. Now what is it?" Rory questioned, remembering that there was bad news to hear.

"Your grandparents want to meet Jess," she said solemnly. Rory stared at her, confused.

"Wait. You told me that Jess was at the hospital every day when I was in a coma, and that Grandma and Grandpa came in every couple of days. And I saw them talking in the days there after I was awake. They've already met."

"Yes. But it wasn't _official,"_ Lorelai said, rolling her eyes. Rory gave an exasperated sigh.

"I will never understand them," she said, smiling softly.

"Neither will I kid, neither will I."

* * *

"You are meeting my grandparents," Rory said, greeting Jess with a small peck on the lips.

"What? Rory, I've already met-" Jess started, but he was interrupted.

"Yeah, but it's Richard and Emily. They need to meet you again, _officially_. As my boyfriend," Rory said, wrapping her arm around his waist and leaning in to him. "This Friday. At dinner."

His heart still managed to skip a beat when she used the word 'boyfriend.'

"I was _already_ your boyfriend when they saw me in the hospital."

Rory shook her head, smiling slightly. "I know. Doesn't matter to them."

"Whatever, come here, your hello was pitiful," Jess said, wrapping his arms around her waist firmly.

"Hey," Rory said, indignantly. She looked ready to argue, but Jess broke her off with a deep kiss, which would have continued, had Luke not protested.

* * *

"Ok, so here's the deal. Just stay calm, I'll cover for anything you say that my grandma doesn't approve of, and you'll be just fine," Rory said. Jess smirked, for she was quite obviously comforting herself, not him.

"Rory, I'll be fine, I _promise_."

"Are you sure, because-"

"Rory, he said he'd be fine. It's freezing out here. Will you ring the bell?" Lorelai interjected.

"They're _your_ parents, you ring it."

Jess sensed a long argument in the making, so he simply reached across Rory and rang the bell. Both of the Gilmores gasped at him.

"What?" Jess said. "It's cold, and I want to go inside."

Rory rolled her eyes.

"Well, _hello,_ there, Rory, Lorelai!" Emily said, answering the door. Her voice dropped in enthusiasm. "Hello, Jess."

Rory winced. She anticipated a long night ahead of them.

Drinks were fairly pleasant, if a little awkward. Richard asked Jess about his taste in literature, and that got the two men talking pleasantly. Emily seemed to be very icy and distant, and Lorelai was trying to engage her in conversation. Rory could only watch happily as Richard and Jess conversed like old friends.

Dinner, however, ended up as a disaster, although it started off just fine.

About half way through, Emily ruined everything.

"Jess, what kind of academic goals do you have?" she said in a sugary sweet voice. Rory's eyes closed. _Oh, great_. She looked toward Jess, trying to portray how sorry she was.

"Well, I know I want to be an English major, reading and writing is my thing," he said smoothly. Rory smiled, proud of him.

"What are your grades like?" she continued in the same friendly tone.

"Mother!" Lorelai scolded, disbelieving of her mom's blunt rudeness.

"No, Lorelai, it's ok, really. Mostly. A's. I have a B in Math and a B- in Science currently," Rory's eyebrows raised. He had really brought his grades up in the past couple of months.

Emily's lips pursed, as if she were trying to find something to disagree with. "You know, Jess, competition to get into an Ivy League school is really tough. Any one with less than a 4.0 shouldn't even apply."

"Grandma, please don't do this," Rory tried to interject, but Emily continued.

"Richard told me what you told him, and if you plan on staying with Rory, you should go to college near by. You _are_ planning on attending a university, I assume?"

"Yes..." Jess said, uncertain.

"Are you planning on going to a competitive four year college?"

"I- I'm not sure... I guess I'll just have to see how things play out," Jess said, raising his eyebrows at Rory.

"Rory is a very special girl," Emily said sternly.

"I know. I know she's special. She's... perfect. And I know I don't deserve her. No one could ever be good enough for her, but for whatever reason, she chose _me_. And I'm not letting her go. I'm not just going to let her leave, unless that's what she wants."

Emily opened her mouth, probably to say some other cruel comment or other, but Rory beat her to it.

"Ok, Grandma, we need to talk about something else now," she said, desperate. She felt her hand being held by Jess's under the table, an act of encouragement and relaxation.

"Fine. What would you like to talk about?" Emily said shortly, and with that Lorelai swept in a changed the topic, steering the conversation into safer waters.

* * *

"I am so, so, so, so, so, so sorry, Jess," Rory said into his chest as she hugged him. They were at Luke's, later that night.

"Rory, you didn't do anything," he said softly, brushing through her hair with his fingers.

"But my grandma did. I feel so terrible," she said, kissing him on the shoulder and then the side of the neck.

"You don't have to. Rory, she wants what's best for you, that's all," he said, shrugging.

"She totally insulted you! It was terrible! And what you said? You know that's not true, right?"

Jess hesitated. "What?"

Rory stepped back slightly, not leaving his embrace. "You said you didn't deserve me. That's _not_ true, Jess."

Jess sighed. "I- listen, we're never going to agree about this, Rory. There could be no guy in the entire world good enough for you, in _my_ opinion, but that's not going to be your opinion," he said.

Rory smiled softly and kissed him. "Love you."

Jess's eyes closed in reaction, and he kissed her back, letting his passionate anger toward Rory's grandparents out in his kiss.

* * *

Author's Note: I don't like this chapter. But I had to write something. Review. I'm running out of steam. Give suggestions and your favorite moment! (If you want.)


	14. Chapter 13: The Happy New Year

Author's Note: Ummm... review. Yeah. This is... sadly... the last chapter. :(

* * *

"Grandma?" Rory said, storming into the sitting room.

"Oh, Rory! What a surprise!" Emily said, smiling brightly. Rory's expression did not waver from its furious mask.

"I want you to apologize to my boyfriend."

"Excuse me?"

"Look, Grandma, I love him very _very_ much and he means the world to me. I had hoped that you would be happy that _I_ was happy, but apparently that's not possible. So I want you to apologize," she said, her arms folded across her chest indignantly.

Emily's face froze in shock, but after a few minutes of silence, she replied, "Fine. I'll give him a call if you'll give me a number."

Rory smirked, satisfied.

* * *

Jess stared at the phone in shock. He didn't care that there were atleast three customers in the diner, wrapped up in scarves and heavy coats, shivering in the early December snow-filed air, begging for hot cocoa.

He didn't care that Luke was waving his hand in front of his face, trying to snap him out of whatever sort of a trance he was in.

Had he really just gotten a phone call from Emily Gilmore, _apologizing _for her treatment of him at their dinner?

He shook his head in utter disbelievement, and called out to his girlfriend as she entered the diner.

"Rory, you will never believe who I just got a call from."

Rory smiled. "My grandmother?"

Jess gaped at her, his mouth flopping uselessly. "You... talked to her?" he asked, confused.

Rory nodded, and Jess smiled, the mystery solved.

"I can't believe she actually apologized," he said, shaking his head in disbelief.

"Did it sound sincere?" Rory asked, somewhat doubtful.

Jess scoffed. "No. But it was better than nothing."

Rory grinned, kissing him softly before turning to Luke and demanding coffee.

"So... tomorrow is the last day of school before Winter break. Are you excited?"

Jess kept his face straight when he responded. "Why would I be excited to spend two weeks without school, with lots of chances to spend uninturrupted time with you?"

Rory rolled her eyes. "Fine, if that's how you feel..." she said, starting to walk away.

Jess reached out at grabbed her arm. "Don't go," he said, his voice mock-pleading.

"Oh, but I must," Rory replied placing a dramatic hand on her forehead. She reached around Jess and grabbed her coffee, pecking Jess on the lips and turning toward the door. "I have a report due tomorrow, I want to go over it one more time. Pick me up at six?"

Jess nodded and watched her leave, a small smile on his lips.

* * *

"MEEEEERRRRRYYYYY CHRISTMAS!!" Lorelai shrieked, throwing the covers off of a still-sleeping Rory.

Something was very wrong with this picture, Rory decided as she forced her eyes open. Her mother was acting the part of the child. Then again...

"Mom? Early..."

"The sun is up, and you should be too!"

"Mom, it's 6:30 in the morning, the sun is still asleep, and you should be, too,"

"I already called Luke and Jess, they're coming over at seven. That gives you a half an hour to make yourself pretty!"

Rory paused in her efforts of getting up. "Why are Jess and Luke coming so early?" Rory asked. "Especially Luke, he never comes..."

She trailed off when she saw her mom blushing madly.

"Oh, my God," Rory said, grinning. "How?!"

"Last night, at the Christmas Eve party at Sookie's? We, um, kissed..." she said, trying to act as though it was no big deal. Rory read through that and saw the excitement bubbling over.

"Mom! That's amazing!" She said, giggling, and jolting herself out of bed to get ready.

* * *

"Merry Christmas," Jess said when Rory answered the door, before pulling her in to him by the waist and kissing her deeply.

"Hey, hey, none of that here," Lorelai said, waving a disapproving hand at the couple.

They ignored her.

"Hey, Lorelai," Luke said, stepping up to her and kissing her softly.

Rory grinned, having broken away from her kiss soon enough to see the action. "Well, aren't you one to talk."

Jess scrunched his face up. "If they get married, we'll be step-cousins."

"Oh, gross! Jess, did you have to say that?" Rory said, hitting him on the shoulder.

Jess smirked. "Yup. So let's go open presents, cuz."

Rory rolled her eyes in exasperation and grabbed Jess's hand, walking him into the living room.

* * *

The fire was crackling merrily in the fireplace (Luke's doing) and hot chocolate was in the hands of all four of the present people.

Wrapping paper was scattered around the room and presents were piled up on the table.

Rory's favorite gift was a copy of the Fountainhead from Jess. She had been confused when she first opened it, but when she cracked the cover, she realized that he had read it, and written notes in the marigins, just for her.

She felt happy, truly satisfied with the place she was in her life. Every day the memory of the gun shot was getting farther and farther away, fuzzier as time passed. Things were good. Things were great, in fact.

Later, after dinner was over and Luke was gone, Rory and Jess were in her room, wrapped up in their own little world.

"Rory?" Jess said after a small lull in their conversation.

"Hm?" She responded, distracted by reading Jess's neat precice hand writting in the margins of the book.

"I love you."

Rory broke into a huge grin and dropped the book, tackling him onto the bed. "I know," she said.

Jess frowned. "Not nice," he said, as Rory leaned over him, her lips teasingly close to his own, but pulled away at the last second.

Jess grabbed her by the waist and pulled her into him, kissing her, giving her no room to escape.

He flipped their positions so that he was on top, continuing his attack of her lips as he drowned in the feelings she always managed to arouse in him.

However, their make-out session was inturrupted by a knock at the door.

* * *

"Hey, guess what today is?"

"What?" Jess said, paying little attention.

"Ummm... the 31st of December?" Rory said, raising her eyes at him.

"New Years Eve," Jess acknowledged, nodding his head.

"Yeah, my mom's throwing a huge party. You're going to be there, right?"

"Well, Luke's going to be there, and I sure don't have other plans," Jess said, shrugging.

"Yay!" Rory responded, throwing her arms around him.

The party was a roaring success.

Members of Stars Hollow were scattered all over their home, drinking and talking, dancing and making fools of themselves in various different ways.

"It's New Years!" Lorelai called excitedly to her daughter.

"I... know, Mom," Rory said, smiling and rolling her eyes.

"No, I mean, we only have one more hour of this year left! One hour! And then everything ends!" her arms were above her head, she was gesticulating wildly around, clearly having one too many drink in her system.

Rory just shook her head, resigned, and turned around, nearly running into Jess, who had been walking toward them.

"Hey, there," Jess said, kissing her and handing her her previously requested drink.

"Hello. Only one more hour!" Rory squealed, almost as excited as her mother.

"I know. Can you believe we've been together for four months now?"

"Yeah," Rory said, smiling. "It seems like longer, though. It feels like we've always been like this."

Jess nodded, lost in thoughts.

An hour later, they were gathered around the TV with the rest of the pary, staring at the News broadcast.

"Ten, Nine," the count-down began, and Rory smiled brightly, her hand tightening around Jess's.

"Eight, Seven," This was truly the perfect moment.

"Six, Five," She was anticipating many more New Year's moments like this, with the same man beside her.

"Four, Three," Because she knewthat no matter how obstacles they had to overcome...

"Two..." They would end up together in the end.

"One! HAPPY NEW YEAR!!" Rory smiled as Jess immediately spun her into him, and kissed her deeply.

It was a regular, cheesy, and as was rule with them, cliche, ending.

* * *

AN: THE END! SAD. :(((((( Ok, Review please, I love hearing what you think! Look for my stories in the future!


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